Singer CMAT says ‘fake version' of Irish culture is being ‘built up' by English
Country singer CMAT has said a 'fake version' of Irish culture is being 'being built up by Americans and English people and claimed for themselves'.
The 29-year-old, whose real name is Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson, is part of a number of Irish acts to rise to popularity in recent years alongside the likes of indie rockers Fontaines DC and rap trio Kneecap, which has prompted a surge in interest in Irish culture in the UK and US.
Speaking to Glamour UK, the Crazymad For Me singer said of the situation: 'I didn't relate to any of it, like, why am I seeing Claddagh rings everywhere? The GAA (Gaelic Athletic Association) jerseys? Why is everyone pretending we had this exact same childhood?
'There's this very romantic vision of Ireland but I grew up in a place where it's not very fun to grow up. This fake version of our identity was being built up by Americans and English people and claimed for themselves.'
The singer is due to release her third album Euro-Country later this year, and says the record features a song about a performance at Radio 1's Big Weekend – when the BBC had to switch the comments off due to people body-shaming her – called Take A Sexy Picture Of Me.
She told Glamour UK: 'That song is about getting fat-shamed on the internet all the time. I wanted to really dig into commercial attractiveness and how women are pruned into this marketable product until they turn about 27.
'I genuinely didn't care that people got so angry that I thought I was sexy, but it forced a lot of 15-year-old girls who love CMAT, who might even be bigger than me, to witness a level of vitriol against a woman's body against her will.'
The full interview with CMAT can be read in the May digital issue of Glamour UK which is online now.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Pedro Almodóvar's Next Movie ‘Bitter Christmas' Set for Spanish Theaters and Streamer Movistar Plus+
Pedro Almodóvar has found his next project. The auteur is now at work on 'Bitter Christmas' for Spanish streaming platform Movistar Plus+. Almodóvar also collaborated with the platform on his English-language feature debut, 'The Room Next Door.' 'Bitter Christmas,' or 'Amarga Navidad,' stars a slew of Almodóvar newcomers and staples, including Bárbara Lennie ('Petra'), Leonardo Sbaraglia ('Pain and Glory'), Aitana Sánchez-Gijón ('Parallel Mothers'), Victoria Luengo ('The Room Next Door'), Patrick Criado ('Riot Police'), Milena Smit ('Parallel Mothers'), and Quim Gutiérrez ('Darkbluealmostblack'). The film will be released in Spanish theaters in 2026, with Warner Bros. Pictures Spain distributing. It will then debut exclusively on the Movistar Plus+ platform. More from IndieWire Studio Ghibli at 40: Can an Ethical Animation Studio Still Exist, or Even Survive? 'Eddington' Trailer: Ari Aster's Western of Pandemic Paranoia Hits Theaters After Dividing Cannes IndieWire has reached out to Almodóvar's representatives for details about a possible U.S. release, though it can be assumed Sony Pictures Classics will release the film in North America, as it has all of Almodóvar's recent outings. We're told that festival play and a U.S. release will take place before the Movistar+ premiere. 'Bitter Christmas' centers on advertising director Elsa, now mourning the loss of her mother over a December holiday weekend. The official synopsis, as shared by Variety, reads: 'She throws herself into work as a form of escape, not realizing she's denying herself the time to grieve. Her relentless pace is interrupted when a panic attack forces her to take a break. Her partner, Bonifacio, becomes her anchor in this moment of crisis. Elsa decides to travel to the island of Lanzarote with her friend Patricia, who is also looking to get away from Madrid, while Bonifacio stays behind in the city. The story of these three characters, and several others, runs parallel to that of screenwriter and film director Raúl Durán, intertwining fiction and reality. 'Bitter Christmas' explores how life and fiction are inseparably linked, sometimes painfully so.' The project is currently filming in Madrid and Lanzarote. Almodóvar and his brother, Agustín Almodóvar, produce through their El Deseo banner in collaboration with Movistar Plus+. Almodóvar won the 2024 Venice Film Festival Golden Lion for 'The Room Next Door,' distributed stateside by Sony Pictures Classics. 'I was very concerned about the English,' Almodóvar told IndieWire about his first film in English. 'We wanted an English that should sound American. My films have never been naturalistic. I have never aspired to the mumbling or babbling or pausing or some of those things that happen in regular language. I like my language to be concentrated and precise. In Spanish, it has worked well.' Best of IndieWire Guillermo del Toro's Favorite Movies: 56 Films the Director Wants You to See 'Song of the South': 14 Things to Know About Disney's Most Controversial Movie Nicolas Winding Refn's Favorite Films: 37 Movies the Director Wants You to See


Newsweek
an hour ago
- Newsweek
Golden Retriever 'Accidentally Trained' To Need Kisses Before Eating
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. A 6-month-old golden retriever from a small town in South-Western Ontario, Canada, has melted the hearts of over a million TikTok viewers—after his owner recorded and shared online how he waits to be kissed every mealtime. The now-viral TikTok video shared under @ has racked up more than 206,000 likes and over 1 million views since it was posted on June 4. The star of the video? A fluffy, English cream golden retriever named Pino who refuses to eat until he receives a kiss. "My mom usually is the one to feed him in the morning and at night, and she always gives him a kiss on the head," Pino's owner, who would prefer to keep their identity private, told Newsweek. "Somehow, he associated the kiss as his release cue instead of my mom saying 'okay.' "Since we have discovered this, we think it might be the cutest accidental quirk." Viewers on TikTok were able to see Pino sitting obediently in front of his freshly filled food bowl. His eyes flick toward his owner, waiting. From left: Pino's owner gives him a kiss on the head in a viral TikTok video; and Pino sitting on the floor at home. From left: Pino's owner gives him a kiss on the head in a viral TikTok video; and Pino sitting on the floor at home. @ An overlaid text on the video provides more context: "Accidentally trained my dog to need a kiss before he eats." Sure enough, when he received a gentle peck on the head, he eagerly began his meal. "Pino is my family dog," his owner explained. "We like to say he found us. "My family looked for a dog to bring home, and Pino had been sent back to his breeder after being with another owner, she was looking for a home for him, and when we saw a photo of him, we picked him up within a few days when he was 3 months old." That fateful meeting turned into a bond so strong that even the smallest gestures—like a kiss before breakfast—have become part of Pino's love language. And the response to it has been nothing short of overwhelming for the canine's family. "I was so excited to see it made people happy," Pino's owner said. "Pino is the sweetest and funniest dog, and people can feel that through a screen. "It was overwhelming to get such a positive response, we love sharing his sweetness with the world." Do you have funny and adorable videos or pictures of your pet you want to share? Send them to life@ with some details about your best friend and they could appear in our Pet of the Week lineup.


San Francisco Chronicle
an hour ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Review: Jess Walter's 'So Far Gone' sets a redemption story in fractured, modern America
When the history of the United States in 2025 is written, perhaps one of the best things that will be said is: 'Well, it made for some great art.' Consider 'So Far Gone,' the new novel by Jess Walter. Set in present day America, it opens with two kids wearing backpacks knocking on a cabin door. 'What are you fine young capitalists selling?' asks Rhys Kinnick, before realizing the kids are his grandchildren. They carry with them a note from Kinnick's daughter, describing dad as a 'recluse who cut off contact with our family and now lives in squalor in a cabin north of Spokane.' More Information So Far Gone By Jess Walter (Harper; 272 pages; $30) Jess Walter in conversation with Tom Barbash: 6 p.m. June 24. Free. Book Passage, 51 Tamal Vista Blvd., Corte Madera. 415-927-0960. Jess Walter discusses 'So Far Gone': 7 p.m. June 25. Free. Lafayette Library, 3491 Mount Diablo Blvd., Lafayette. 925-283-6513. It's a great hook that draws you in and doesn't really let up for the next 256 pages. We learn why Kinnick pulled a Thoreau and went to the woods seven years ago (Hint: It has a lot to do with the intolerance exhibited by no small percentage of Americans and embodied by a certain occupant of the White House), as well as the whereabouts of Kinnick's daughter, Bethany, and why her messy marriage to a guy named Shane led to Kinnick's grandchildren being dropped off at his cabin. In a neat narrative gimmick, the chapters are entitled 'What Happened to ___' and fill in the main strokes of each character's backstory, as well as what happens to them in the present timeline. Told with an omniscient third-person sense of humor, the book's themes are nonetheless serious. On the demise of journalism in the chapter 'What Happened to Lucy,' one of Kinnick's old flames and colleagues at the Spokesman-Review: She 'hated that reporters were expected to constantly post on social media… before knowing what their stories even meant.' Or Kinnick's thoughts as he holds a .22 Glock given to him just in case by a retired police officer who is helping him get his grandkids back from the local militia: 'The shiver that went through his arm! The power!… The weight of this gun was the exact weight of his anger and his fear and his sense of displacement… That's where its incredible balance lay.' As Kinnick links up with various characters and drives across the Northwest in search of his daughter and grandchildren, the plot unfolds quickly. Most readers won't need more than a day or two to reach the final page, which satisfies the Thoreau quote Walter uses in the story's preface: 'Not till we are lost… 'till we have lost the world, do we begin to find ourselves.'