The Daily Dot has reached out to Tate McRae and Morgan Wallen via email, for comment.
From Beyoncé’s “Cowboy Carter” to Post Mallone’s “F-1 Trillion,” country crossovers seem to be all the rage. Some pop genre fans are pissed, however, that rising star Tate McRae may be crossing a line with a rumored country music collaboration. The artist is facing backlash on social media after allegedly teasing a connection to controversial country star Morgan Wallen in an Instagram Story from April 15, 2025.
The speculation began after McRae posted a close-up image of what appears to be a sports jersey on her Instagram Stories (@tatemcrae). The jersey features “T8” written in white mesh, representing the stylized abbreviation many fans use as a reference to the singer’s name.
The famous orange and white colors are attributed to the University of Tennessee’s football team, the Tennessee Volunteers. However, a smaller detail—an orange circle with the initials “MW” embroidered in white, placed at the collar—had social media theorizing McCrae may be linked to Wallen.
“Tate mcrae collabing with morgan wallen….. it’s never been more over,” wrote X user @mazzypopstar on April 15, 2025. They include a side-by-side image of the two music stars, along with a screenshot from McCrae’s Instagram Story. The post has over 2.9M views, 46K likes, 2.6K reshares, 2.2K saves, and 400 comments.
Wallen’s official fan community, Club Wallen, added to the rumor mill after posting a screenshot of McCrae’s Instagram Story on their Discord server. “Pssst,” the wrote, followed by the image of the jersey.
@mazzypopstar took this to mean Wallen had “confirmed” a collaboration. “Everyone on her teams needs to go like how do you go from making music like this that caters to a completely different demographic to collabing with that man…” they wrote in a followup post, with a GIF of McCrae’s “Sports Car” music video.
Is Tate McCrae collaborating with Morgan Wallen?
While neither McCrae nor Wallen have publicly announced an official partnership, many fans felt these clues communicated a message which had been lingering in Wallen’s world for a while.
The country artist first admitted he was working on a duet with a mystery female singer on April 9, 2025, when he responded to a fan on X who asked if his new track “What I Want” would be a duet with a woman.
“Indeed sir,” Wallen confirmed.
Rumors flew regarding which female artist would be the chosen collaborator. Many assumed it’d be another country music star, but on April 10, 2025, Wallen created an Instagram Story where he stated that he hadn’t “seen one person guess the female collab on this album correctly yet.”
A few days later, fans of Wallen and McCrae came to their own conclusions based on the “MW” initials on the jersey, and how Wallen is a Tennessee Volunteers fan, who often wears their branding at his concerts.
Fans are accusing McRae of being a secret Trump supporter on social media
While some music fans are both intrigued by the unconfirmed and unexpected crossover, others are questioning the pairing, citing Wallen’s conservative values and past controversies against McCrae’s more outspoken, liberal persona.
“Tate Mcrae confirms in discord server she is collaborating with Neo Nazi and racist Morgan Wallen,” wrote X user @Popmvsics, in a viral post with over 1.2M views, 29K likes, 1.7K reshares, 1.3K saves, and 253 comments.
The post featured two images, one of McCrae and another which appears to be a screenshot of a response from the pop artist on Discord reading, “@everyone i know you’ve seen the rumors and it’s true btw i am collaborating with morgan wallen. we are in studio rn the song will probably be out mid summer.” The Discord account has not been independently verified by the Daily Dot
Others across social media slammed McCrae, calling her “racist” and insinuating she may be a secret Trump supporter, claiming that her upbringing in Calgary, Alberta, is reason enough to believe she may skew more right than left.
X user @folkwhvre posted an image of McCrae with the words, “Republican makeup” written in the caption, while X user @erenfromtargets said, “From khia asylum to trumps rally…” resharing a post about the alleged collaboration from entertainment news X account @PopBase.
“The way everyone thought tate mcrae was britney’s daughter but the entire time she was carrie underwood’s firstborn,” @mazzypopstar wrote in another post, comparing McCrae to Britney Spears and conservative country singer Carrie Underwood.
McRae fans come to her defense
Some diehard McCrae fans aren’t buying into the defamations though. X user @jimmysoldout posted a long list of qualities, characteristics, and associations the singer has had exemplifying her liberal agenda, including her connections to the LGBTQ+ community.
X user @mcrxez also pointed out in the comments of @Popmvsics’ post that “Tate McRae doesn’t have a discord channel” and that “Her only official sources are: t8hq, misspossesivetour & tatemcrae on Instagram & TikTok,” implying that the Discord screenshot could be fake.
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