Nearing the end of her late night slot on the Repsol stage, the Dunboyne singer joked that \u201cThe A in CMAT stands for, \u2018And through it all\u2026\u2019\u201d she began, before leading the crowd in a singalong of Williams\u2019 hit \u2018Angels\u2019. As she finished, Williams darted on stage to huge cheers, and hugged the singer who then informed people that, \u201cI really know that it seemed like that was planned, but it really wasn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n
Elsewhere in the set, CMAT \u2013 real name Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson \u2013 referenced Olivia Rodrigo<\/a>\u2019s recent cover of her song \u2018When A Good Man Cries\u2019<\/a> on BBC Radio 1\u2019s Live Lounge, preceding the track by declaring, \u201cThank you Olivia Rodrigo, she\u2019s my best friend!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n When Rodrigo covered the track, taken from CMAT\u2019s critically-acclaimed third album \u2018Euro-Country\u2019,<\/a> she praised the Irish artist as \u201csuch an incredible, unique songwriter,\u201d before continuing: \u201cI think nobody writes songs like her right now, and she\u2019s just a force. Beautiful, beautiful voice, so I hope I did this song justice.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Despite the success of viral hit \u2018Take A Sexy Picture Of Me\u2019, which speaks of the body shaming that the singer has experienced online since stepping further into the limelight, CMAT recently was forced to speak out about further online abuse<\/a> following an appearance at Radio 1\u2019s Big Weekend 2026 earlier this summer.\u00a0<\/p>\n In a lengthy post on Instagram, Thompson said she had \u201cfelt compelled to wade in and speak for myself\u201d after discovering some derogatory remarks about images of her from the event.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is literally so boring for me, a gorgeous genius, to keep having to yap on about how horribly I am treated because of my body,\u201d she wrote. \u201cI would love to stop but I cannot because it keeps happening, at an accelerating and worsening pace as I become more famous.\u201d<\/p>\n Back in May, CMAT took home the Best Album award for \u2018Euro-Country\u2019 at the Ivors 2026<\/a>. The record was also shortlisted for the 2025 Mercury Prize<\/a>, and landed at Number Four on NME\u2018s best albums of the year list<\/a>.<\/p>\n Bilbao BBK Live 2026 kicked off on Thursday (July 9) with powerful performances from the likes of FKA Twigs<\/a> and David Byrne<\/a> \u2013 read NME\u2019s round-up of day one here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Alongside CMAT and Williams, day two also featured sets from Tomora<\/a> \u2013 the collaborative project between Aurora<\/a> and Tom Rowlands of Chemical Brothers<\/a>, Alabama Shakes<\/a> and Belle and Sebastian<\/a>. The festival will continue tonight (July 11) with closing sets from Lily Allen<\/a>, IDLES<\/a> and more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In partnership with Bilbao BBK Live 2026. Fresh from headlining the main stage earlier that night, Robbie Williams…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":685957,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[96,128,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-685956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=685956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685956\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/685957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=685956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=685956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=685956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/BBL2026_CMAT_@ainhoalaucirica_37-2.jpg\")
CMAT performs at Bilbao BBK Live 2026. Photo credit: Ainhoa Laucirica<\/p>\n