{"id":83058,"date":"2025-10-16T21:58:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T21:58:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/83058\/"},"modified":"2025-10-16T21:58:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T21:58:11","slug":"irish-music-success-comes-from-generation-of-trauma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/83058\/","title":{"rendered":"Irish music success comes from \u2018generation of trauma\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Irish singer CMAT has said her country\u2019s recent musical success comes from a \u201cgeneration of traumatised people\u201d, ahead of the Mercury Prize award ceremony.<\/p>\n

The 29-year-old is nominated alongside fellow Irish act Fontaines DC at the event in Newcastle, for her album Euro-Country, and told the PA news agency their success came as a result of \u201ca lot of bad fruits coming to harvest\u201d, and added she is \u201cvery excited\u201d about the awards.<\/p>\n

She told PA: \u201cI think that this is a bit of a generation of traumatised people that are getting to make music now.<\/p>\n

\"FontainesFellow Irish act Fontaines DC are also nominated for the award. Photo: Ben Birchall\/PA.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wish I could pinpoint it to anything else, but it\u2019s just the fact that everything is coming up through the rafters so quickly, and there\u2019s a lot of artists from a very small, not very densely populated country, making a lot of music that feels quite important, as opposed to trivial.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think everybody is a bit earnest and has had their head screwed on a little bit because we all went through something 20-odd years ago my age group (the 2008 Irish economic downturn referenced on her album), and we\u2019re now really dealing with the fall-out and the repercussions of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I think on a psychological level, everybody just kind of has that thing in common.\u201d<\/p>\n

The singer, whose real name is Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson, and Fontaines DC are nominated alongside Pulp, Sam Fender, Wolf Alice, FKA Twigs, PinkPantheress, Pa Salieu, Emma-Jean Thackray, Jacob Alon, Joe Webb and Martin Carthy in the 12-artist shortlist.<\/p>\n

If either indie rockers Wolf Alice or Britpop band Pulp win the prize, they will become only the second artist to have won it twice after PJ Harvey, who won it with Stories From The City in 2001 and Let England Shake in 2011.<\/p>\n

\"Pulp\"Pulp at the Mercury Prize awards ceremony (Danny Lawson\/PA)<\/p>\n

Pulp won the prize in 1996 for their album Different Class, while Wolf Alice won with 2017\u2019s Visions Of A Life in 2018.<\/p>\n

Wolf Alice frontwoman Ellie Rowsell, who said she would like to see CMAT win if her own band do not, told PA their first win \u201cmeant a lot to us\u201d and said the band were \u201cvery honoured\u201d to win, and be back among the nominees this year.<\/p>\n

Speaking of the award\u2019s impact, she added: \u201cIt can be brilliant exposure. I have discovered artists through the Mercury Prize and Mercury shortlist, so it spotlights artists that some people might not have heard of. That\u2019s one of the best things about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"WolfWolf Alice, who have previously won the award, said it provides \u2018exposure\u2019 (Danny Lawson\/PA)<\/p>\n

The band have been nominated for all their studio albums, with debut My Love Is Cool missing out on the prize in 2015, and third LP Blue Weekend missing out in 2021, while Pulp were also nominated in 1994 for His \u2018N\u2019 Hers, and in 1998 for This Is Hardcore.<\/p>\n

This year Wolf Alice are nominated for fourth studio album The Clearing, which was released in August.<\/p>\n

Pulp drummer Nick Banks, who also wanted to see CMAT win the award, said: \u201cI\u2019m feeling reasonably excited, I never feel that it\u2019s your gong to win, but yes, we\u2019re just happy to get on the shortlist and happy to be in the party.\u201d<\/p>\n

Banks, whose band are nominated for the 2025 album More, said he enjoyed the awards being held in Newcastle, the first time they have been held outside London, because it was a \u201cmuch shorter train journey\u201d and \u201cBritain\u2019s got so much to showcase\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"SamSam Fender is also among the nominees for this year\u2019s award. Photo: Niall Carson\/PA.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s awards are judged by a panel that includes jazz star Jamie Cullum, DJ Jamz Supernova, and The Times pop and rock critic Will Hodgkinson, and is chaired by Radio 2 head of music Jeff Smith.<\/p>\n

The show, which will air on BBC Four and iPlayer on Thursday at 9.30pm, will feature live performances from a number of the nominees before the winner is announced.<\/p>\n

The prize, which has been running since 1992 when it was won by Primal Scream\u2019s Screamadelica, aims to champion the album format as well as new music in the UK and Ireland across an eclectic range of genres.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Irish singer CMAT has said her country\u2019s recent musical success comes from a \u201cgeneration of traumatised people\u201d, ahead…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":83059,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[156,157,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-83058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83058"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83058\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}