CMAT song inspired by being fat shamed at Radio 1 Big Weekend
Irish country singer CMAT says her new single was written in response to being fat-shamed over her appearance at a festival last year.During her performance at Radio 1's Big Weekend in Luton last year, the singer-songwriter removed a shirt to reveal a different outfit underneath.The BBC disabled comments on an Instagram clip of the moment - and CMAT says some of the insults inspired her new track - Take A Sexy Picture Of Me."I was just wearing clothes and everyone was very annoyed at me for that," she tells Radio 1's Jack Saunders.
Take A Sexy Picture Of Me, the second single from upcoming album Euro Country, charts the challenges of being a woman in the public eye. It's something the singer, Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson, says no longer applies only to celebrities thanks to social media."This happens to everyone all the time," she says."Everyone is constantly being judged on whether or not they're commercially attractive and where they fall within these really weird goal posts."I just was annoyed, and I wanted to write a song about being annoyed about it."The track begins with CMAT singing about trying to wax her legs with sticky tape when she was nine, and how the pressure to be attractive has meant she's "been having a horrible time of late".But the lyrics are contrasted with poppy hooks and the tongue-in-cheek solution of having someone "take a sexy picture". "The thing with this song was, I wanted it to sound joyous and uplifting to sing but also to be a bit of a rallying cry," she says."If we're dealing with a song that's as dark as this, and as grim as this, we have to make it a bit funny."
It's not the first time CMAT's been targeted for her appearance.At the 2024 Brit Awards, she wore a revealing dress and told the BBC: "The backlash was crazy.""I had a lot of people that were very angry that I would do such a thing. "They were horrified, and people were really angry and aggressive in comments, telling me I had to go to the gym," she said at the time."I think [my outfit] caused a stir because it's big and because I'm a size 14 as opposed to a size six."
'Feminine rage in one song'
CMAT fan Ada-Mae Tasker tells BBC Newsbeat the the singer's lyrics in her new track "hit home"."It perfectly summed up feminine rage in one song," the 23-year-old from Cornwall says. "Society puts so much pressure on girls especially to look a certain way and I've definitely had my own experiences with that."It's just something you're brought up to think about constantly - your weight, how you look to other people, but you just have to try and be confident enough to block out the noise."With CMAT addressing the issue head on, Ada-Mae's hopeful it will start a discussion."I think it's so amazing for other people who've maybe never thought about how women are perceived by society to hear that song and think about how they see women as well," she says. Talia Burnton says she could really relate to Take A Sexy Picture Of Me when she first heard it on Wednesday. "I really struggle with having people take my photo because I have quite a difficult relationship with my body image," the 17-year-old from London says."Having an artist who's really important to me speaking about an issue so big to me looking back on her teen years, it made me feel really seen."
In the song, CMAT sends a message to "party girls dragged out by their ankles", singing: "I'm here if you need me, deep in your afters"."I wanted the song to act as a support group for everyone who goes through this kind of thing," she tells Radio 1. "Because it's completely outside of my control."
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