Songfacts®:

• In "Dear God," Tate McRae begs the Almighty to erase every memory of an ex. With her hands on her chest and her knees on the carpet, she pleads with Him to "take his kiss right out of my brain." It's very much like the plot of the 2004 movie Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind.
• McRae co-wrote the song with Julia Michaels, the hitmaker behind tunes for Selena Gomez and Justin Bieber. The two of them had booked three days in the studio together, and McRae, by her own admission, had no idea whether they actually needed more songs for her So Close To What album. But what began as a "fun, sexy dance song" she explained in an Amazon track-by-track breakdown, morphed into something altogether more desperate: a last-ditch appeal to a higher power to intervene in the affairs of the heart.
  
  "It was kinda fun to use all those visuals of sitting on the side of your bed and praying to forget a person," she said.
• OneRepublic frontman Ryan Tedder and California producer Grant Boutin co-wrote and produced the track. Tedder grew up in a devout Christian household, and while there is no evidence to suggest he insisted on including, say, a gospel choir or a thundering organ, one does wonder whether his background lent an added layer of sincerity to McRae's existential pleading.
• Though McRae has never been particularly vocal about religion, she does have a habit of summoning a higher power before taking the stage - but not the one you might expect. Instead, she calls upon "Tatiana," her own personal alter ego. Growing up, McRae longed for a name that felt more feminine. Later, as a performer, she created the persona of Tatiana, which served as a form of artistic protection. She envisioned Tatiana as an invincible, glamorous, and fearless alter ego. McRae even joked to The Independent that Tatiana is the real author of "Dear God."
  
  "I channel her whenever I wanna be careless and say f--k it and really take back the power," she said.
• "Dear God" may owe at least some of its inspiration to McRae's past relationship with Canadian NHL player Cole Sillinger. Another song she wrote with Michaels from the same album, "Revolving Door," was at least partly about him, and if we read between the lines of "Dear God," we might reasonably suspect that Sillinger is the ghost she is so desperately trying to exorcise.
• McRae performed a stripped down version of "Dear God" - along with "Sports Car" - on Saturday Night Live on March 1, 2025. It was her second appearance on the show.