Within minutes of meeting Irish singer Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson, I discover three things: she is a hugger, she has a Diet Coke addiction, and her favourite movie is Frank, the 2014 drama-musical in which Michael Fassbender wears a ginormous papier mache head for the entire duration. “For me, that’s the most accurate depiction of being in a band, being on tour, and making a record,” says Thompson, who is not wearing a giant fake head. In fact, amid the cacophony of chatter, I only now notice that she is only in a towel. “Sorry,” she purrs theatrically. “Who would’ve thought the basic room at Premier Inn wouldn’t have robes?”
The 27-year-old, who performs under the moniker CMAT, is part way through photo shoot prep – which explains the hot pink 1920s-style wig on the table and the mountain of tulle on the bed. Also: the towel. Niall, her make-up artist, is getting to work. A hotel room of sartorial treasures is a fitting setting for a musician whose love of camp is as extensively documented as her love of country music. Both are all over her exuberant second album Crazymad, For Me, which follows 2022’s If My Wife New I’d Be Dead – her acclaimed debut that shot straight to No 1 in Ireland and won the RTÉ Choice Music Prize that year. Thompson makes left-field, over-the-top pop with plain-as-day melodies and powerhouse vocals indebted to icons like Kate Bush and Stevie Nicks. She’s been described as “Dublin’s answer to Dolly Parton” more than once.
