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Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson (born 23 February 1996), known professionally as CMAT (, ), is an Irish singer, songwriter, and musician. ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'' wrote of her music, "Her songs are mournful yet accessible, emotionally literate and cleverly crafted, but, crucially, with a huge sense of humour..." Her third album, Euro-Country, will be released on 29 August 2025.


Early life

CMAT was born on 23 February 1996 in Dublin, and moved with her family to
Clonee Clonee () is a village and a townland in County Meath, Ireland. It borders County Dublin to the east at the townlands of Huntstown and Littlepace, and is sometimes used in addresses for housing in those townlands. The River Tolka passes the vi ...
and
Dunboyne Dunboyne () is a town in County Meath, Ireland, north-west of Dublin city centre. It is a commuter town for Dublin. In the 20 years between the 1996 and 2016 censuses, the population of Dunboyne more than doubled from 3,080 to 7,272 inhabitan ...
in
County Meath County Meath ( ; or simply , ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in the Eastern and Midland Region of Republic of Ireland, Ireland, within the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster. It is bordered by County Dublin to the southeast, County ...
as a child. She returned to Dublin to study at
Trinity College Dublin Trinity College Dublin (), officially titled The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, and legally incorporated as Trinity College, the University of Dublin (TCD), is the sole constituent college of the Unive ...
, but later dropped out and moved to Denmark for three months to attend a songwriting camp.


Career

CMAT, who had aspirations to become a professional musician from a young age, relocated to
Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...
, England, to pursue a career in music with her then boyfriend, performing together as Bad Sea. She has since described their relationship as toxic and isolating, and she stopped pursuing a music career, living a partying lifestyle. She attended an in-person listening session at a London studio with the English
electropop Electropop is a popular music fusion genre combining elements of the electronic and pop styles. It has been described as a variant of synth-pop with emphasis on a hard electronic sound. The genre was developed in the 1980s and saw a rev ...
singer
Charli XCX Charlotte Emma Aitchison (born 2 August 1992), known professionally as Charli XCX, is a British singer and songwriter. She began posting songs on Myspace in 2008 before entering the London rave scene. Signing a recording contract with Asylum Re ...
, who advised CMAT to reimagine her approach. Breaking up with her boyfriend and returning to Ireland, she began self-releasing her music online to considerable attention and received radio play from
RTÉ Radio 1 RTÉ Radio 1 () is an Irish national radio station owned and operated by RTÉ and is the direct descendant of Dublin radio station 2RN, which began broadcasting on a regular basis on 1 January 1926. The total budget for the station in 2010 w ...
and
BBC Radio 6 Music BBC Radio 6 Music is a British digital radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It primarily plays a wide range of alternative music, from established and emerging artists and bands. In 2002 it was the first national music radio station t ...
. Her debut studio album '' If My Wife New I'd Be Dead'' was released in February 2022.
Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...
, which aggregates review scores, gives the album a score of 85 based on 9 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". ''
Hot Press ''Hot Press'' is a monthly music and politics magazine based in Dublin, Ireland, founded in June 1977. The magazine has been edited since its inception by Niall Stokes. History ''Hot Press'' was founded in June 1977 by Niall Stokes, who cont ...
'' magazine wrote that the album was "undoubtedly one of the most thrilling Irish pop debuts of the century". In a four-star review, '' DIY'' wrote, "''If My Wife New...'' feels like a more well-rounded, modern proposition than one solely indebted to the oldest style going could suggest." The album entered the
Irish Albums Chart The Irish Albums Chart is the Irish music industry standard albums popularity chart issued weekly by the Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA). The charts were previously compiled on behalf of IRMA by Chart-Track, and have been compiled by t ...
at number one. In June 2022, she released a single called "
Peter Bogdanovich Peter Bogdanovich (July 30, 1939 – January 6, 2022) was an American director, writer, actor, producer, critic, and film historian. He started out his career as a young actor studying under Stella Adler before working as a film critic for ''Fi ...
", which came with a
music video A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to ...
which featured CMAT dressing as the late director. On 19 August 2022, "Peter Bogdanovich" charted at number 20 on the Irish Homegrown Top 20. In March 2023, ''If My Wife New I'd Be Dead'' won the
Choice Music Prize The Choice Music Prize (), known for sponsorship reasons as the RTÉ Choice Music Prize is an annual music prize awarded to music from a band or solo musician who is born in the Republic of Ireland or Northern Ireland or holds an Irish passport. ...
for Irish Album of the Year. In June 2023, CMAT announced her next studio album, '' Crazymad, for Me'', which was released in October 2023. Like her previous album, this album debuted at number one on the Irish Albums Chart. Her album was later nominated for the Best Album
Ivor Novello Award The Ivor Novello Awards, named after the Welsh entertainer Ivor Novello, are awards for songwriting and Musical composition, composing. They have been presented annually in London by the The Ivors Academy, Ivors Academy, formerly called the Britis ...
on Thursday 23 May 2024. CMAT has been noted for her large fanbase among Irish
LGBTQ+ LGBTQ people are individuals who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning. Many variants of the initialism are used; LGBTQIA+ people incorporates intersex, asexual, aromantic, agender, and other individuals. The group i ...
people, once telling an ''
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 ...
'' interviewer "I'm making music for the girls and the
gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late ...
s, and that's it." In May 2024, the
BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
were forced to disable comments on a video on its
Instagram Instagram is an American photo sharing, photo and Short-form content, short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with Social media camera filter, filters, be ...
page of CMAT's performance at the
Radio 1 Big Weekend BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend (R1BW) (previously known as One Big Weekend, for 2012 as Radio 1's Hackney Weekend, and for 2018 as BBC Music's Biggest Weekend) is a British music festival run by BBC Radio 1. It is held once a year, in a different l ...
festival, following a spate of comments labelled " fat-shaming." Later that month, CMAT pulled out of a performance at that summer's
Latitude Festival Latitude Festival is an annual music and arts festival set within the grounds of Henham Park, near Southwold, Suffolk, England. The first edition of the festival took place in 2006 and has continued annually (apart from 2020 when it was cancel ...
due to the festival's sponsorship by
Barclays Barclays PLC (, occasionally ) is a British multinational universal bank, headquartered in London, England. Barclays operates as two divisions, Barclays UK and Barclays International, supported by a service company, Barclays Execution Services ...
, and the company's financial involvement in the
Gaza war The Gaza war is an armed conflict in the Gaza Strip and southern Israel fought since 7 October 2023. A part of the unresolved Israeli–Palestinian conflict, Israeli–Palestinian and Gaza–Israel conflict, Gaza–Israel conflicts dating ...
. On 25 March 2025, CMAT announced her third studio album '' Euro-Country'', in which she also released the album's lead single "Running/Planning". She describes the album as the "type of loss, pain and lack of community that she feels that are suffering from under modern capital isolation" and the "best thing she has ever made". On 7 May 2025, the album's second single "Take a Sexy Picture of Me" was released.


Personal life

CMAT is
bisexual Bisexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior toward both males and females. It may also be defined as the attraction to more than one gender, to people of both the same and different gender, or the attraction t ...
and has been described as a "bisexual icon".


TV Appearances


Discography


Studio albums


Singles

* "Another Day (KFC)" (2020) * "Rodney" (2020) * "I Wanna Be a Cowboy, Baby!" (2020) * "Uncomfortable Christmas" (2020) * "I Don't Really Care for You" (2021) * "2 Wrecked 2 Care" (2021) * "No More Virgos" (2021) * "Lonely" (2022) * "Every Bottle (Is My Boyfriend)" (2022) * "Communion (Country Version)" (2022) * ''Mayday'' (2023) * "Whatever's Inconvenient" (2023) * "Have Fun!" (2023) * "Where Are Your Kids Tonight?" featuring John Grant (2023) * "Stay for Something" (2023) * "Aw, Shoot!" (2024) * "Running/Planning" (2025) * "Take a Sexy Picture of Me" (2025)


Awards and nominations


References


External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:CMAT (musician) Irish musicians Living people 1996 births Musicians from Dublin (city) Irish bisexual women Irish bisexual musicians Bisexual women musicians Irish women country singers Irish women pop singers Irish women folk singers 2020s in Irish music