Last month, news broke of the daylight Louvre jewellery heist – an event that shocked its nation and captured the imagination of people far beyond the scene of the crime. Just three days prior though, Newcastle’s Utilita Arena was the site of, arguably, an even greater theft. “CMAT was ROBBED,” proclaims Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson, the glint in her eye matched only by the flash of her tooth gems. “I’m sorry, I love Sam so much, but I was fucking robbed. I can’t even pretend that I don’t think that, because I do.”
The injustice in question is, of course, the 2025 Mercury Prize Album Of The Year – British and Irish alternative music’s most prestigious accolade, which this year was awarded to [a very deserving – Ed] Sam Fender for his third LP ‘People Watching’. “Sam’s album is amazing,” Ciara resumes, “but he even said it himself – ‘it’s not even [his] best record!’ I totally thought mine was the best record of all those that were nominated.” She’s laughing (as are we – it’s hard not to, in her company) but she is nevertheless, you sense, being deadly serious. “I guess what I was gutted about is that I don’t think I’ll ever win the Mercury Prize now, because – if I’m being brutally honest with myself – I really feel like I’m not going to make a better record than ‘EURO-COUNTRY’.”
Hang on, though – we’ve been here before. Last time DIY spoke to her, for the cover of our August 2023 issue, she made a similar assertion: that second outing ‘Crazymad, For Me’ – which was also shortlisted for the Mercury Prize – was “probably going to be the best album I ever make”. But as she sat in the audience for last year’s ceremony, she had a sudden wild urge not to win for that record. As she puts it: “I had a feeling that I could make something better.”
It’s refreshing to see an artist be so openly, unapologetically ambitious about their prospects, and so readily accepting of their success. Where others might play coy, Ciara knows she deserves her flowers. “I have to think that,” she nods, “because if you don’t think that, you are literally in the wrong job. If you don’t think that, you’re crazy to even attempt to do any of this.” And, Mercury or not, 2025 has been the year that proved CMAT is – and always has been – the right horse to back.
With ‘EURO-COUNTRY’ – her third album, released back in August – she’s finally made the leap proper from cult favourite to bona fide pop star. Doubtless, she was already on her way: both her 2022 debut ‘If My Wife New I’d Be Dead’ and ‘Crazymad, For Me’ are stellar collections of whipsmart, heartfelt songwriting. But this is, unequivocally, her best work yet, simultaneously a genre-coining paragon of her hybrid sound, a complex portrait of postmodern Ireland, and a benchmark of what modern pop can be. (Though if anyone can top it, it’s her).
