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NASHVILLE: The Irish emerging pop star who has recently made waves online with her viral hit “Take A Sexy Picture Of Me” as well as a recent triumphant, “career-making set” and 5-star performance at Glastonbury, which saw an audience of 80,000 fans simultaneously dancing along to her the viral TikTok dance – today released the title track from her forthcoming third studio album EURO-COUNTRY (August 29 via AWAL).
The anthemic track “EURO-COUNTRY” opens CMAT’s highly anticipated album of the same name – but what does it mean?
Says Rolling Stone, who spoke to CMAT exclusively recently about her new album, “Euro-Country is an ode to that in-betweenness — the messy, difficult-to-box-in nature of Thompson’s feelings about fame, identity, and community.”
Says CMAT in explaining the term, “I have certain phrases that reverberate around my head over and over again – and EURO-COUNTRY was one of them. It’s the title of the album, and the name of the first song on the record.” To CMAT, the phrase represents three things: it is her self-coined term for the kind of music she makes. As she puts it “it’s not pop, it’s not country. I’ve always struggled to describe the genre of music I make. And I landed on EURO-COUNTRY.”
Secondly, it’s an homage to her complicated relationship with Ireland. As she told Rolling Stone “It’s almost like having a bad boyfriend. You love him so deeply, but there are things about him that are very, very troubled. You can take it lying down, and pretend that nothing’s wrong, or you can try and deal with it. I’m someone who has to face it head-on.”
And thirdly, it’s her as a songwriter, dealing with this current moment of time. She says “EURO-COUNTRY is a loose name I’ve given to the pain that comes from the loss of community that has happened in the recent past.”
The Mercury Prize and BRIT nominated Irish emerging popstar is one of the hottest new acts coming out of the UK right now, charting and rising on the UK singles charts, Spotify Viral Chart, TikTok Chart’s Top 50, with sturdy stamps of approval from The Guardian, Rolling Stone, NME, Glamour UK, Stereogum, The New York Times, Brooklyn Vegan and many more. Her recent hit “Take A Sexy Picture Of Me” continues to blaze its own trail, thanks in part to a fan-created viral dance, dubbed “The Woke Macarena,” read the New York Times piece on it here. After reverberating around social media – with the likes of Julia Fox and Amelia Dimoldenberg showing off their skills – and the track trending on Spotify and TikTok viral charts, recent CMAT shows like Glastonbury, Primavera, Wide Awake and Neighbourhood have seen thousands of fans doing both leg tings and hand stuff.
Despite this being her third album, this fully-formed acronymic star feels like she’s been part of the culture forever. EURO-COUNTRY follows 2023’s brilliant Crazymad, For Me – an album that propelled her to wider attention and garnered numerous accolades: including a BRITs Best International Artist nod; and ‘Best Album’ nominations from the Ivors; Mercury Prize and the Choice Music Prize in her native Ireland (an award she won for her debut, If My Wife New I’d Be Dead).
Press, radio and television have all been integral in her rise, with numerous covers, five-star reviews, playlists, Maida Vale sessions and TV appearances, including Jools Holland (both Later… and a memorable turn on his Hootenanny) and The Graham Norton Show. A relentless touring schedule with The Very Sexy CMAT Band has cemented her reputation as one of the best live acts around.
The new album – coming via AWAL Recordings – was recorded in New York and co-produced by long-time collaborator Oli Deakin and CMAT. EURO-COUNTRY tackles a number of big themes including personal reflections on economics, identity and grief. It marks another step in the unstoppable rise of CMAT and cements her position as a generational songwriter.
What has endeared fans to her heart-sore tunes and humour is Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson’s ability to combine contradictory themes and moods: wide-eye drama with self-deprecation; the fusion of country and pop, with even more influences stretching across decades and genres. EURO-COUNTRY is no different: an aural tight-rope walk that balances big themes, specifically: the impact of economics on a small country, the attention that comes with increased fame (not all of it good) and being a woman.
Speaking about the LP, CMAT said: “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”
“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 shit. 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.”
WEBSITE: www.cmatbaby.com
Management: info@this.ie
