CMAT pictured with band member Púca and Marty Whelan at Stephens Green. Photo: Frank McGrath.
Irish star CMAT garners attention with video release for new single ‘Euro-Country’
Wearing a dress adorned with the face of Daniel O’Donnell and carting a wheelbarrow of vinyl records, the singer posed outside St Stephen’s Green this afternoon following the release of her hotly anticipated new record.
Her viral hit Take a Sexy Picture of Me – which took off alongside a TikTok dance trend – and her single Euro-Country made waves online, a track about the financial crash which took a swipe at “all the big boys and the Berties”.
CMAT, whose stage name is derived from her full name Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson, enlisted the help of RTÉ star Marty Whelan to stage the photoshoot ahead of a performance at the nearby Golden Discs.
Her bandmate, Púca, was dressed as a €1 coin wearing a pair of high heels.
“I love your new album!” one fan called from across the footpath, telling the country-pop singer she had been listening to it all morning as others posed for pictures.
A number of international tourists, who were mildly confused by what was going on, took selfies with the unlikely trio behind them.
A walking tour of tourists led by a man dressed as Cú Chulainn and accompanied by a number of Irish wolfhounds added to the strange scene at St Stephen’s Green.
By coincidence, on her new album, the star sings: “And now I feel just like Cú Chulainn, I feel like Kerry Katona.”
CMAT recently announced her biggest Irish headline shows yet at St Anne’s Park in Dublin and Virgin Media Park in Cork, following a sold-out run of dates and a nomination for a BRIT Award.
Speaking to Marty Whelan on RTÉ’s Lyric FM this morning, she said the album deals with the boom and bust, discussing her childhood and the recession.
“I’m also just making it really personal. I don’t think there’s any point in talking about political stuff unless you’re going to have a lot of heart and soul and personal experience in it.”
Her last album Crazymad, For Me, earned her ‘Album of the Year’ nods from The Ivors, Mercury Prize and Ireland’s Choice Music Prize, which she won for her debut If My Wife New I’d Be Dead.
“Euro-Country is, I think, the best thing I have ever made. I felt halfway through recording it was the most important record I’ve made for myself… mainly because it was making me go crazy,” she said after the announcement of her tour.
“I’m always going to make the work I want to make, because there is a little gremlin in my head that tells me if it’s s***.
“More than success, there’s a bigger gremlin that wants me to make music that’s really good. She’s brutal and has ruined my life at times, but she is the keeper of my life and she’s always right.”