{"id":675916,"date":"2026-11-05T17:06:11","date_gmt":"2026-11-05T17:06:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/675916\/"},"modified":"2026-11-05T17:06:11","modified_gmt":"2026-11-05T17:06:11","slug":"elton-john-teams-up-with-cmat-for-step-into-christmas-duet-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/675916\/","title":{"rendered":"Elton John teams up with CMAT for Step Into Christmas duet \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Elton John<\/a> has teamed up with Meath singer-songwriter CMAT<\/a> for a new version of his festive hit single Step Into Christmas.<\/p>\n

The new duet of the 1973 single, which peaked at number seven on the UK singles chart in 2025, will be this year\u2019s Amazon<\/a> Music Original Christmas song, following last year\u2019s XMAS by Australian singer Kylie Minogue<\/a>, which became the 2025 UK Christmas<\/a> number one single.<\/p>\n

Elton said: \u201cI\u2019ve loved CMAT since I first heard her and saw her videos years ago. She has this incredible personality and a wicked sense of humour.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can tell she has rock\u2019n\u2019roll and country, and Americana, at the heart of what she does \u2013 we\u2019re kindred spirits in so many ways, and that\u2019s why I was so thrilled with the idea of us collaborating on Step Into Christmas. She\u2019s done an amazing job.\u201d<\/p>\n

CMAT, whose real name is Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson, said: \u201cWhen I listen to the music of Elton John, I am seven years old in the back of my mam\u2019s car. It doesn\u2019t matter how old or famous I become \u2013 whenever I listen to Elton John I will always be seven years old in the back of my mam\u2019s car.<\/p>\n

\u201cReconciling this feeling with the reality of getting to work with the man in question has been confusing to say the least, but the greatest joy of my life.<\/p>\n

\u201cChristmas is my absolute favourite thing in the world, second maybe only to Elton John. I would like to invite the whole world to step into Christmas with us and make your yuletide dreams come true.\u201d<\/p>\n

CMAT teased the single earlier this week with a number of Instagram posts showing her dressing up as Elton.<\/p>\n

CMAT (30) won the best album gong at this year\u2019s Ivor Novello Awards<\/a> for her third LP Euro-Country<\/a>, which was released last year.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0If CMAT\u2019s at it, it must be cool: The ever-growing appetite for food-themed fashionOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The singer is best known for songs such as Take A Sexy Picture Of Me, When A Good Man Cries and Running\/Planning.<\/p>\n

Elton, whose birth name is Reginald Dwight, is best known for hits such as Rocket Man, Tiny Dancer and I\u2019m Still Standing. He rose to fame in the 1970s following the release of his second album, the self-titled Elton John (1970), and has gone on to win five Grammys and five Brit awards, and achieve 10 number one singles and albums in the UK charts.<\/p>\n

The new song will be available to stream exclusively on Amazon Music from Thursday. \u2013 PA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Elton John has teamed up with Meath singer-songwriter CMAT for a new version of his festive hit single…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":675917,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[9484,3468,893,16915,93,61,60],"class_list":["post-675916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-christmas","tag-amazon","tag-cmat","tag-elton-john","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/675916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=675916"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/675916\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/675917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=675916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=675916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=675916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}