Mckenna Grace Loves To Get Ugly & Rotten

In most areas of her life and career, Mckenna Grace has to play nice. But not in the studio. On her ferocious new single “Ugly and Rotten,” the 19-year-old actor/singer unleashes her unbridled fury on a misbehaving ex. Grace has always been a metalhead, and it’s never been more apparent than in this screaming, unrestrained release. “I’m so strict with myself to be positive and uplifting in my life, but as soon as I start writing music, I get mean,” Grace tells Elite Daily. “My music tends to be a lot angrier than I truly am. It’s my therapy to get out all of my bitter emotions.”

“Ugly and Rotten” was born from an unexpected late-night studio session, where Grace was trying to work on a different song, but around midnight, a rogue Notes app line inspired her to lean into her anger and record something totally new. “It was a complete throwaway at first,” Grace says. “I just saw this random lyric I jotted down a long time ago: ‘You said that we'd figure it out. I guess you were busy figuring her out.’ I just sang that verbatim, and we were up until 2 a.m. making it. I’ve never stayed in the studio that late before.”

The release, which serves as a first taste of Grace’s new music era, sees the artist fully delving into her favorite genre — something she’s flirted with in her previous songs but had some apprehension about embracing.

“I did an interview a while ago where I said that I really like heavy metal, and I got torn apart online,” Grace says. “I guess it’s not really my personality to do things that are a little more angry and ugly, but I love making angry music. I don’t think girls get to be angry. It’s always been my goal in music to tie in the 2000s metal influences I love, but only recently have I felt like, ‘Screw it. I’m just going to do what I do and have fun.’”

“Hopefully, the angry emotions I'm putting out there can help some other girl who feels as angry as I do over random things feel a little heard,” Grace says.

While Grace can’t speak too much about her upcoming music plans, she admits that spending the last year portraying the assertive and abrasive District 12 tribute Maysilee in The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping contributed to her songwriting. “I had spent so many months playing this very angry character that all of a sudden it started to seep into my lyricism,” Grace says. “I do have some songs that were inspired by her. ‘Ugly and Rotten’ isn’t really one of them, but I could totally see how it fits her vibe.”

As she enters a gritty new chapter of her music career, Grace shares the artists who have most inspired her below.

Conan Gray

While Grace had been a lifelong music fan, it was discovering Conan Gray during a dark time that inspired her to actually pursue singing and songwriting herself.

“I would sit in my room during the pandemic when I was 14 and just listen to his record Kid Krow on repeat,” Grace says. “I was confined to my apartment for months, so I’d sit on my floor with my composition book with that album playing, and that’s how I started writing music. I attribute how I learned about songwriting to that record.”

Her favorite Gray songs are “Fight or Flight,” “Wish You Were Sober,” and “Checkmate.” His music means so much to Grace that when she made her Lollapalooza debut in 2024, her main focus wasn’t on her own set, but rather making sure she didn’t miss Gray’s. “I was like, ‘I don't care what has to happen for me to make that set, but the only thing I care about is seeing Conan play,’” Grace says.

So, it’s no surprise that she had a full-on fangirl moment when Gray invited her on stage during his Wishbone World Tour in March. “I tried to play it cool, but I was like, ‘I can’t believe I’m here right now,’” Grace says. “Little 14-year-old me was so depressed in my room, and this music inspired me to totally change my perspective. I got so emotional.”

Olivia Rodrigo

Grace’s relationship with Olivia Rodrigo goes way back to before she was a massive pop star. They first met when Grace guest-starred on a 2016 episode of Rodrigo’s show Bizaardvark. “She was so, so kind to me on that set,” Grace recalls. “She gave me her number, and has always been so sweet to me.”

Because of this meet-up, Grace was on the ground floor before Rodrigo released her breakout single “drivers license” in early 2021. “I don't know if I've ever told this story, but when she first put ‘drivers license’ on Instagram, I DMed her like, ‘This is Taylor Swift level. This is insane. Please send me the chords. I want to cover this,’” Grace says. “She was like, ‘Oh, it’s totally not that.’ But I was like, ‘No, you’re going to be huge when this comes out!’ And next thing you know, she’s the biggest star in the world.”

She currently can’t stop replaying Rodrigo’s unreleased you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love track “Begged,” and other favorites include “Obsessed” and “Traitor” — the latter of which she sees as sort of a spiritual sister to “Ugly and Rotten.”

Grace sees Rodrigo as a kindred spirit in how they approach music. “I love that she's using these '90s and 2000s rock grunge influences, which is totally what I strive to do with 2000s metal influences,” Grace says.

And now they have another thing in common. Back in 2023, Rodrigo joined the Hunger Games universe by recording her song “Can’t Catch Me Now” for The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes. Although Grace has yet to talk with Rodrigo about their new Hunger Games connection, she could feel the pop star’s presence while filming Sunrise on the Reaping.

“I listened to that song a million times on set,” Grace says. “I would use it to get into character, and it would also give me that feeling of, ‘Wow, I can’t believe I’m here.’”

Flyleaf

Grace’s obsession with metal music began in the early 2000s when she discovered women-fronted bands like Evanescence and Flyleaf. “I always thought it was so sick to see a female metal vocalist who just screams,” Grace says. “That’s why Flyleaf felt so special to me, because it’s really hard to scream as a girl.”

It was Grace’s father who introduced the rock group to her at a young age. “I must have been around 7 years old when my dad first played Flyleaf for me,” Grace says. “We would listen to ‘Fully Alive’ together all the time, that was our song. And it made me feel so cool as a little kid to be like, ‘Yeah, I listen to rock.’”

Because Flyleaf infamously disbanded for several years in the 2010s, Grace has never gotten to see her favorite group perform live, but her dream could come true now that Flyleaf is going on a reunion tour this July.

“It is my dream to see them live,” Grace says. “I would die to meet them. I would die to just be in the same room as them!”