Tate McRae‘s hit “greedy” is her biggest chart hit to date, but according to the Canadian singer, it went through a lot of iterations before she considered releasing it.

Tate co-wrote “greedy” with OneRepublic‘s Ryan Tedder, among others. She tells Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1, “This song went through 20 versions. The first version of ‘greedy’ is absolute trash. And the only person who could hear through it was Ryan Tedder.”

“I remember leaving that [first] session being like, ‘What did we just make? That was insane. I do not like that,'” she continues. “And Ryan, every single time I would come back to the studio, he’d be playing it as I’d be walking in. I’d be like, ‘Ryan, shut this off. I don’t need to hear “greedy” one more time.’ He was like, ‘Tate, I love this song. I still love it.'”

Tate says it wasn’t until a year later that she finally realized that there was a way she could make “greedy” palatable to herself.

“I was listening to it again, and I was like, ‘This song is either a big single with a big dance video, and I go full pop girl, and I go fully that direction, or I’m not putting it on the album.'”

So, that’s exactly what she did. She tells Zane, “Making the music video for ‘greedy,’ I was like, this is the first time that my aesthetic and my vision is executed exactly how I want it to. With my [hockey] glove and my basketball shorts.”

Tate will perform “greedy,” from her upcoming album Think Later, on the Billboard Music Awards on November 19 and likely on Saturday Night Live on November 18, where she’s the musical guest.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.