CMAT announces 3Arena concert and new album
Ellen O'Donoghue
CMAT has announced her first headline show at Dublin’s 3Arena, alongside announcing her new album Euro-Country.
The singer will perform at the 3Arena on Friday December 5th.
Her third album is set for release on August 29th and is accompanied by her new single, Running/Planning, which is out now.
Ticket prices range from €47.20 to €53.85 subject to Ticketmaster charges, and will go on sale on Friday, April 4th at 10am on Ticketmaster.ie.
Fans can access pre-sale tickets by pre-ordering the new album before 5pm on Tuesday, April 1st.
On her new single, CMAT said that “Running/Planning is about having to chase your own tail to be good enough to exist. It’s an abstracted view of societal pressure on women - specifically through a relationship lens”.
“You start dating someone, you get engaged, you get married, you have kids etc etc etc… everything has to follow this linear pattern. (That’s the reason for the repetitive chorus!). And the minute you don’t follow that path, your mam starts giving out to you”.
“That narrow path that everyone is supposed to be on… the minute you get outside of that, it gets incredibly stressful. And I don’t know anyone who is like, ‘Yeah, love this!"
Euro-Country follows her 2023 record Crazymad, For Me, which garnered a BRIT’s Best International Artist nod and Best Album nominations from the Ivors, Mercury Prize, and the Choice Music Prize.
CMAT previously won the Choice Music Prize Album of the Year award in 2022 for her debut album, If My Wife New I’d Be Dead.
The singer and performer also announced a 13-date Ireland and UK tour on Tuesday, which starts at the O2 Academy Brixton, London, and finishes at the 3Arena, which has a capacity of 12,000.
Euro-Country is described as “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.”
Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson, who combined all of her initials for her stage name of CMAT, said that she thinks the album is “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 sh*t. More than success, there’s a bigger gremlin that wants me to make music that’s really good,” she said.
“She’s brutal and has ruined my life at times, but she is the keeper of my life, and she’s always right.”
CMAT also plays All Together Now in Waterford on August 2nd, and the Irish singer is also playing at Glastonbury this year.