"What I Want" debuted at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, which made it Wallen's eighth song to open at the summit, extending his own record. For Tate McRae, it was her first visit to the country chart, which says something about the scale of what Wallen can do for a pop artist willing to cross over: he does not need country credibility points; he is the country chart. Tate McRae is from Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada, built a career through pop with genuine emotional depth, and her voice here sits with Wallen's in a way that surprised some listeners who did not expect the combination to work. It works because McRae has always written and performed with a directness that is closer to country's emotional tradition than most pop artists get. The crossover feels earned rather than engineered. The song is about wanting something clearly, without qualifications, which is a deceptively difficult thing to write convincingly. Both of them sell it. The chart result followed accordingly.
Morgan Wallen, Tate McRae