Ciara May Alice Thompson, known as CMAT, is a self-proclaimed international pop sensation, whose second album, Crazymad, For Me, has officially become number one in Ireland, it was announced today – a feat her debut album also achieved in 2022.
The 27-year-old wowed fans of all ages, from girls in their early teens with their parents to middle aged men who showed up alone, in Golden Discs in Stephen’s Green, Dublin, on Friday with an intimate acoustic gig and signing to celebrate the album’s release.
Arriving late due to a delayed flight from London, she announced: “I actually legged it. I’m so out of breath. I didn’t know if I was ever going to see the sunny streets of Dublin again but here we are.
“Yeah, so,” she says, regaining composure, “I released an album. I think it’s doing okay. I don’t know officially but I do believe that a lot of you bought it and I am very, very grateful.
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“Thank you all so much. This has been the great joy of my life to be able to do this – but enough of that,” she says, with sincerity in her voice, before going back into superstar mode and performing her song California, with a power in her voice that made the microphone redundant.
Her voice travelled beyond Golden Discs, attracting a crowd outside the store who were trying to peek in to see what was happening and who it was that was singing from their stomach with an inert passion that conveys the feelings of the many who relate to her songs, putting into words what her fans often cannot.
Midway through the gig, after singing No More Virgos, she shouted to her mother, who was at the back of the crowd alongside a sibling, her aunt and a gang of cousins: “Mam, did you get me a cup of tea?” She did not.
“I thought you did get me one.”
“No, do you want one?” her mother replies, wearing a T-shirt with “I’m CMAT’s mam” written on the back.
“Yeah, I explicitly want you to make it and not Barry cause he makes it too milky,” CMAT shouts back, speaking about her manager, Barry O’Donoghue.
“Barry’s tea, it’s not the best,” she says to the crowd.
CMAT’s music has a country feel with a pop edge and her personality is that of an unapologetic twenty-something who has grown up paying ridiculous rents living in a country that many others her age have chosen to leave. This is very much reflected in her songs.
“The rent is due. How much is rent now?” she asks the crowd.
“Too much,” they reply.
“The last time I was living in Dublin, my rent was like €850 a month. I was in a box room in a house in Dolphin’s Barn and I was sharing with five other people. I just left in the middle of the night,” CMAT says.
She interacts well with the crowd – letting them pick the songs she sings, saying that someone’s mother was “slaying” and dedicating songs to different people for different reasons.
Before her last song, she announces that she is not singing until the crowd do one very specific thing – the Dunboyne, Co Meath, two-step – coaxing her family and the Golden Disc employees too because “the movement is required for the song”, obviously.
What tune could that possibly be, you may ask? I Wanna Be a Cowboy, Baby, of course.
She sings with a passion from the heart, conducting the crowd like a seasoned professional and banging her trainers on the tiny stage in replacement of a drum, even having to remove the sought-after cup of tea for fear it may spill.
From going to open mic nights on Dublin’s Wexford Street in her work clothes three nights a week to selling out the Olympia four nights in a row and having a Fairview Park concert date next year – not to mention a European and North American tour too – CMAT is well on her way to international pop sensation status, if she’s not already there.
