"You Broke Me First" is a song by Canadian singer

Tate McRae Tate Rosner McRae (born July 1, 2003) is a Canadian singer, songwriter, and dancer. She first gained prominence as the first Canadian finalist on the American reality television series ''So You Think You Can Dance (American TV series), So You Th ...

. It was released on April 17, 2020, through

RCA Records RCA Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside Columbia Records (its former longtime rival), Arista Records and Epic R ...

as the lead single from her second extended play, '' Too Young to Be Sad'' (2021). The song gained popularity on the video-sharing platform

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, where it has featured in over a million videos. The song is one of the most streamed songs released by a female artist in 2020. The song reached mainstream US radio on August 4, 2020. "You Broke Me First" peaked at number eight on the

Canadian Hot 100 The Canadian Hot 100 is a music industry record chart in Canada for songs, published weekly by ''Billboard (magazine), Billboard'' magazine. It was launched on the issue dated March 31, 2007 as the standard record chart in Canada; a new chart ...

. Outside of Canada, "You Broke Me First" peaked within the top ten of the charts in Australia, Belgium (Flanders), Finland, Ireland, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Norway, Singapore, Sweden, and the United Kingdom, while charting at number seventeen in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

Composition and lyrics

"You Broke Me First" is an

indie pop Indie pop (also typeset as indie-pop or indiepop) is a music genre and subculture that combines guitar pop with a DIY ethic in opposition to the style and tone of mainstream pop music. It originated from British post-punk in the late 1970s and s ...

bedroom pop Lo-fi (also typeset as lofi or low-fi; short for low fidelity) is a music or music production, production quality in which elements usually regarded as imperfections in the context of a recording or performance are present, sometimes as a delibe ...

, and

synth-pop Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a music genre that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s and early 1970s b ...

song with trap influences. McRae recalls her lyric "But I don't really care how bad it hurts, cause you broke me first" being praised by songwriter Victoria Zaro and producer Blake Harnage while in the studio. She says that writing and recording the song was a "super quick process". Through the song, McRae expresses that she refuses to feel sympathetic for an ex-partner. She told Anna Rose of ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming and culture website, bimonthly magazine, and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a "Rock music, rock inkie", the ''NME'' would be ...

'', McRae also revealed to

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that the song is lyrically connected to its single successor, " Vicious".

Reception

”You Broke Me First” received critical acclaim from critics, who praised McRae's vocal performance, the production and honest lyricism. Multiple critics wrote that the song was McRae's most personal to date, with some describing it as a "hard-hitting ballad". McRae reacted to the acclaim from fans and critics, saying she was "super happy that other people are connecting with the song too."

Commercial performance

In the United Kingdom, "You Broke Me First" debuted at number 66 on the UK Singles Chart and later climbed to number five on the chart, becoming McRae's first top ten entry in Britain. The song later peaked at number three on the chart. In the Republic of Ireland, the song entered the

Irish Singles Chart The Irish Singles Chart is the Republic of Ireland's music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by the Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA) and compiled on their behalf by the Official Charts Company. Chart rankings are ...

three weeks before and eventually rose to number nine, becoming the first top ten peak in her career. The song later peaked at number three on the chart. In New Zealand, the song entered at number 18 on the Hot Singles Chart upon its initial release, before debuting at number 34 on the

New Zealand Singles Chart The Official Aotearoa Music Charts, formerly the Official New Zealand Music Chart (), is the weekly New Zealand top 40 singles and albums charts, issued weekly by Recorded Music NZ (formerly Recording Industry Association of New Zealand). The M ...

several weeks later amid its popularization. It peaked at number 12 on the chart. In the United States, the song would also become her first chart entry on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, peaking at number 17. When it reached number 40 in its 20th week, the song attained the third-slowest climb to the top 40 by a female artist, after Norah Jones's "Don't Know Why" and KT Tunstall's "Suddenly I See". The track peaked at number 2 on the

Mainstream Top 40 Pop Airplay (also called Mainstream Top 40, Pop Songs, and Top 40/contemporary hit radio, CHR) is a 40-song music chart published weekly by Billboard (magazine), ''Billboard'' Magazine that ranks the most popular songs of pop music being played o ...

chart and number 1 on the US

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top 40 chart, becoming her first number one single and breaking the record for the longest climb to number 1 by a female solo artist at 28 weeks on the latter chart. "You Broke Me First" is also the longest-charting song released by a female artist in 2020 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, at 38 weeks.

Live performances

McRae performed the song at the 2020 MTV Video Music Awards. In October, she performed the song on ''

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''. In November, McRae performed the song at the 2020 MTV Europe Music Awards and was praised by ''

'' and ''Billboard'' for being one of the stand out performers. In January 2021, she performed the song on ''

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''. McRae performed the song on January 30, 2025 at Intuit Dome in

Inglewood, California Inglewood is a city in southwestern Los Angeles County, California, United States, in the Greater Los Angeles, Greater Los Angeles metropolitan area. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, the city had a population of 107,762. ...

for FireAid to help with relief efforts for the January 2025 Southern California wildfires.

Personnel

Credits adapted from Tidal: * Blake Harnage – producer, composer, lyricist, recording engineer * Tate McRae – composer, lyricist * Victoria Zaro – composer, lyricist * Dave Kutch – mastering engineer * Jeff Juliano – mixing engineer

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Release history

Cover versions

Dutch electronic music duo Dash Berlin released a cover of the song in September 2021.

References

{{Authority control 2020 singles 2020 songs 2020s ballads Indie pop songs RCA Records singles Songs written by Tate McRae Tate McRae songs Music videos shot in Toronto