Tate McRae recently stirred up controversy among Canadians after she posted an advertisement endorsing Team USA, even though she herself hails from Canada.

The 22-year-old singer-songwriter from Calgary took to Instagram on Tuesday to share a video promoting the 2026 Winter Olympics, set to take place in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy.

In response, Canadian social media users voiced their displeasure over McRae’s promotion of NBC and Peacock’s Olympic coverage.

The advertisement highlighted major events featuring American athletes and shone a spotlight on skier Lindsey Vonn, who has made headlines for intending to compete despite suffering an ACL rupture in a recent crash.

The Daily Mail has reached out to McRae’s representatives for a statement on the matter.

In the ad, Tate is seen sporting a chic red cropped jacket paired with matching pants as she makes her way down a snow-covered mountain.

Tate McRae found herself on the bad side of Canadians this week after she posted an ad supporting Team USA — despite being a Canadian herself

The 22-year-old Calgary-born singer highlighted some of Team USA’s most high-profile events in an advertisement for NBC’s coverage of the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo in Italy; the Olympic rings are pictured in Milan on Wednesday night

The pop star whipped around her lustrous locks and highlighted her impeccable makeup after taking her helmet off. 

Tate went on to share the events she was most excited about to a snowy white owl perched atop a signpost. 

‘It’s the weekend with America’s best skating for gold, and Lindsey Vonn’s epic comeback,’ she said.

Canadians suffered a further slap in the face as their countrywoman concluded the ad by promoting another American sporting event, this weekend’s Super Bowl LX, where the Seattle Seahawks will face off against the New England Patriots.

‘Then back to the States for the big game, Super Bowl 60,’ she told the owl, which looked at her quizzically. 

Although the ad was explicitly for NBC’s coverage of the Winter Olympics, it also doubled as a promotion for her new single, Nobody’s Girl, as Tate playfully wedged in a reference to the song title.

On X (formerly Twitter), reactions from Canadians ranged from befuddlement to fiery ire.

‘Tate McRae, who is from Calgary, Alberta, is doing Olympic promos for Team USA… more like “Trait McRator” AMIRITE!’ joked one user.

In her ad, Tate appeared in a sleek scarlet cropped jacket and matching red pants as she skied onto a snow-covered mountain peak. She whipped around her lustrous locks and highlighted her impeccable makeup after taking her helmet off.

Tate went on to share the events she was most excited about to a snowy white owl perched atop a signpost

Canadians suffered a further slap in the face as their countrywoman concluded the ad by promoting another American sporting event, this weekend’s Super Bowl LX, where the Seattle Seahawks will face off against the New England Patriots

 

 

On X (formerly Twitter), reactions from Canadians ranged from befuddlement to fiery ire

Another person wrote, ‘Tate McRae with such loser behavior being in a US Olympic ad 😭 get your bag girl, your 15 mins almost up.’ 

‘Tate McRae doing a promo for NBC and Team USA for the Olympics and not Canada has me a bit sad but okay,’ read a more measured response.

‘I swear, i love Tate McRae but she keeps messing things up, she’s already cleared them MAGA allegations and now she’s getting canceled by everyone again for promoting the U.S.A. olympics instead of Canada’s,’ adding one fan who alluded to criticism Tate weathered for collaborating with country music superstar Morgan Wallen.

Wallen has been hit with multiple controversies, including an infamous incident in which he was caught on video drunkenly spewing the N-word.

Although he was temporarily banned from several radio stations, country music fans responded to Wallen’s use of the offensive racial slur by streaming and buying more of his music than ever. 

‘my girl needs to stay strong because another hate wave is coming,’ the poster added.

Some critics of the ad claimed it was inflaming tensions between Canada and the US after President Donald Trump had already shattered the usually cordial relationship between the longtime allies with his halfhearted threats to annex Canada to make it the 51st US state.

‘Not sure what Tate or her team thought was gonna come out of this. Canadians are insanely patriotic in the Olympics in normal times,’ wrote one user who also referenced crushing tariffs that Trump has levied on and off against Canada. 

One fan compared the patriotic scandal to criticism Tate weathered for collaborating with country singer Morgan Wallen, who was briefly shunned for drunkenly spewing the N-word

Some critics of the ad pointed claimed it was inflaming tensions between Canada and the US after President Donald Trump had already shattered the usually cordial relationship between the longtime allies by threatening to annex Canada to make it the 51st US state

One Canadian poster took a different approach and wondered ‘why couldn’t NBC find any Americans to promote Team USA?’

Some fans ultimately found the controversy about Tate’s allegiances to be overblown

Later on Wednesday, Tate shared a cute childhood photo of herself to emphasize her Canadian bona fides in response to the online outrage

‘Her doing an ad for the country that’s been joking about annexation and trying to crush us economically for a year was a really bad decision, bro,’ they added. 

One Canadian poster took a different approach and wondered ‘why couldn’t NBC find any Americans to promote Team USA?’ 

‘Are there no American celebrities who care about the Winter Olympics?’ they wondered.

Some fans ultimately found the controversy about Tate’s allegiances to be overblown.

‘Being mad at #TateMcrae for an Olympic sports ad commercials [sic] says more about you than it does her. Like y’all 🤐 it,’ advised one user.

Later on Wednesday, Tate defended herself from the online outrage by sharing a cute childhood photo to emphasize her Canadian bona fides.

In the picture, which was a picture of an older printed photo, she wore a pink graphic shirt in the photo and had on a silver headband as she held a tiny Canadian flag.

‘..y’all know I’m Canada down,’ Tate wrote over the photo.