The bubbly, acerbic Dubliner channels the Nashville greats – and some surprising others – in her hook-laden country-pop mashup
CMAT isn’t a new Gen-Z acronym you haven’t heard of yet - it stands for Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson, a bubbly, acerbic 25-year-old from
Dublin. Her tacky-glam country-pop channels the Nashville greats plus references to Robbie Williams, Philip Larkin, Waitrose and
Irish novelist Marian Keyes.
“The only way to make country
music in 2020 is to completely bastardise it,” she told the NME last year, adding that her musical style is a mashup of Dolly Parton, Weird Al Yankovic and
Katy Perry. Her songs are mournful yet accessible, emotionally literate and cleverly crafted, but, crucially, with a huge sense of humour, which will appeal to fans of 2021’s newly crowned
Queen of Britpop, Self Esteem.
If My Wife New I’d Be Dead is out on 25 February on AWAL. CMAT tours the
UK and
Ireland from March