{"id":1758477,"date":"2026-02-06T14:00:24","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T11:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1758477"},"modified":"2026-02-06T14:00:24","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T11:00:24","slug":"cmats-fake-pop-star-days-are-over","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1758477","title":{"rendered":"CMAT\u2019s Fake Pop Star Days Are Over"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Sarah Doyle<\/span><\/div>\n

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Encounter<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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CMAT\u2019s Fake Pop Star Days Are Over<\/h1>\n
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Last year, the Irish singer-songwriter hit it big with \u201cTake A Sexy Picture.\u201d This year, she\u2019s reaping the benefits.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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by Jillian Giandurco<\/a><\/address>\n
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A lot can change in a year \u2014 CMAT knows that better than anyone. Exactly 365 days before we met in December, the Irish singer-songwriter was working on what would become her third album Euro-Country <\/em>in New York City and wanting to \u201ckill everyone\u201d by the end of her trip. Cut to December 2025, and she\u2019s back in town to mark the biggest year of her career with some celebratory press and ice skating at Rockefeller Center. (She lasted all of 40 minutes before the touristy schtick lost its appeal.) \u201cThe problem with ice skating is all the other people that are ice skating,\u201d she tells NYLON, her thick Irish accent swallowing every \u201ch\u201d in her sentence. \u201cI won’t be doing that again.\u201d<\/p>\n

We meet at her hotel after her ice skating outing, still dressed in her \u201clittle Christmas elf outfit<\/a>\u201d: a crimson sweater adorned with everything under the sun from dragonflies to seashells, white lace bloomers, purple knit tights, and floral embroidered kitten heels. Her tooth gems and auburn hair double as the perfect accessories, but the best addition to her look is the red leather handbag that\u2019s been embellished with a set of caster wheels. \u201cLook at this, it’s so stupid,\u201d CMAT (born Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson) says, showing it off. \u201cI don’t believe in excessive, I don’t believe in overdressing. I believe in underdressing.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Her latest NYC stint comes at the end of a \u201cf*cking mental\u201d year that consisted of a career-high Glastonbury<\/a> set, a second Mercury Prize nomination for Euro-Country<\/em>, and her first viral hit with \u201cTake A Sexy Picture Of Me,\u201d a glittering indie-pop critique of beauty standards and the sexualization of women. \u201cI’ve been kind of like a dog chasing my own tail,\u201d she says of her breakout year. \u201cI feel like an actual pop star now, instead of a fake little funny one.\u201d 2026 promises to be just as busy, as she\u2019ll be \u201cmilking the sh*t out of everything that happened\u201d in 2025 with a supporting gig on Florence + The Machine\u2019s<\/a> Everybody Scream<\/em><\/a> tour and making her Coachella<\/a> debut in April.<\/p>\n

Lucky for her, she loves the work, as evidenced by her goal of playing over 100 shows in 2026 (up from the 80 she played last year), though she hopes to pencil in some downtime during Coachella to catch the Bob Baker Marionette Theater at the festival. \u201cI’m a puppet person, I love puppets,\u201d she says. \u201cI love the beauty of them. I love the craftsmanship of them. I love that you have to both be visually talented to make one, and then comedically talented to perform them. I like that, with the limitations, you can access weirdly deeper and more profound emotions. There’s just something about them.\u201d<\/p>\n

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