Gig Review: CMAT At Alexandra Palace
After selling out Ally Pally in less than 30 minutes, CMAT takes the stage to bring out TV Burp icon Harry Hill and celebrate a fanbase that has either got stupider or hornier – with both things, she argues, being better for both worlds.
30 minutes. That was how fast Irish country star – no longer rising, now a behemoth, CMAT, took to sell out Ally Pally. It looks oversold, for that matter – packed heavier than the likes of Fontaines who also sold it out last time they played here. But the audience is safe and the crowd are here to have a good time – this, not whatever crime against humanity was happening at the 02 in North Greenwich called Country 2 Country celebrating American country artists over the same weekend, was in its form, CMAT feels more honest, rawer – and objectively funnier. It’s as much a game-show as it is a live show performance – she enters Ally Pally through stage right, making herself aware of the venue’s iconic history – before stepping up on stage, having kept the Coldplay kiss-cam from her 02 Academy Brixton set, but now, like always, using it to amplify trans rights to the whole 10,000 people gathered there today – her heart is in the right place, and the platform – as anyone should, being used as a battle cry to tear down reform and call for a free Palestine, aligns CMAT with every other Irish act in the game right now.
It’s a celebration of turning 30 – the crowd is very millennial; and CMAT’s influences are very millennial, so who better to include than 30-year-old Katy J. Peason as support, who I’ve seen a few times now and is great every time she’s come on. The special video presentation of titular Jamie Oliver Petrol Station showcases what a good sport CMAT is by having the subject of mockery in her setlist, Jamie Oliver, debut in her music video. The crowd are in good spirits long before she comes on stage on the family and friends viewing platform for Janis Joplining and then debuts The Jamie Oliver Petrol Station in-person, that explains the irrational hatred of Oliver that came from eating a lot of his branded food on tour. It’s about personal growth, coming to terms with that hatred being unnecessary, and Oliver himself is good sport more than ever for appearing in that music video, that is sure to go down a treat with fans.
Deployed earlier in the set, CMAT is in free-flowing mode by now, with her very sexy band. When A Good Man Cries explores the emotion of third-wave feminism and how outdated it is now; turning a trope on its head and making a man cry for once: it’s again, about CMAT realising that and hoping she can become a better person out of it. That’s what Euro-Country is all about, it’s growth – going full-country immediately and letting the whole audience know from the off that this is what they’re in for.
My favourite track of the new record, Tree Six Foive, gets deployed next: it used to be called 365, but yeah, there’s an artist named Charlie XCX that released a song with the same name, so CMAT had to give it a more phonetic sound. It works wonders – and should, again, this whole album really should, elevate her to the status quo of your Charli XCXs, Sabrina Carpenters and Chappell Roan’s. She’s that good, that free-flowing, that effortless, arguably better than all of them, her comedy skills being second to none. She’s aware of her ultra-specific references; like the plot of Jamie Oliver Petrol Station makes no sense to the average listener, so she says, but that’s part of CMAT’s humour, you don’t need to be aware of her inspirations to be caught up and have a catchy fun time.
That is key for what comes next because, well, it is Ally Pally, which CMAT intends to milk for all it’s worth, and brings out TV Burp comedian Harry Hill, who was an icon for many of us with freeview growing up. He is clearly there having as much fun as CMAT – the stage is massive for him, he’s also as big a fan of CMAT as everyone else in the audience given, he was at the Brixton Academy show too (and sat, only a few rows behind me). Like Oliver, Hill is excellent sport – he comes on stage to have darts thrown at him, and then we’re off and running again – the darts break giving the crowd a downtime. Harry Hill in 2026 performing in a dart board at a CMAT concert? Absolutely iconic – he’s never been more of the moment than now.
EURO-COUNTRY gets a good run-out here, it is a tour, after all – and I love that CMAT addresses the beauty standards of the music industry head on with Take a Sexy Picture of Me, it’s the cruel idealisation of being born imperfect into a world that holds perfect people up onto a pedestal, even from such a young age – it’s searingly honest and like most of the songs, charming. It’s an album that’s politically charged as much as it is about two-stepping to country-songs, and none more than Take a Sexy Picture is an example of that juxtaposition – she wasn’t expecting it to take off the way it did but this is the moment, this is the icon – this is CMAT’s world after all, and we’re just living in it. It was her mission statement to create the catchiest pop song but make the lyrics so uncomfortable it’s hard not to feel radicalised – and by the end, you’re bowled over.
The two-hour performance puts most popstars of her ilk to shame as she milks Ally Pally for all its worth. It’s a performance very much worthy of the big stage as she is aware the trek that many of her fans have made to get here, nobody lives near Ally Pally after all and it’s hard as hell to get to. She goes through the deep cuts, we get a rare showing of California, and they return to the old country with Billy Byrne from Ballybrack, The Leader of the Pigeon Convoy, new album opener. By the end, it feels like the whole 10,000 inside Ally Pally are two-stepping and that’s a feat surely that struggles to be bettered by any other artist of this size. Rarely has a crowd at Ally Pally been this all in, and this engaged. Everyone here couldn’t have spent their Friday night in a better place.
2026 is the year of Euro-Country, baby. If you’re not on board yet, what are you doing?