LAST UPDATE | 10 Sep

CHART-TOPPING SINGER CMAT has made an appearance as a musical guest on Jimmy Kimmel Live in what has been a sensational week for the on-the-rise star. 

She, along with Fontaines D.C., was shortlisted for a Mercury Prize for album of the year this morning. 

Jimmy Kimmel Live is the second-most watched late-night show in the US and CMAT performed her single ‘Take A Sexy Picture Of Me’.

One viewer labelled it a “beautiful performance by an insanely talented artist” with another proclaiming her a “star”.

Before her appearance in the late-night show, CMAT joked that the “‘AT’ in ‘CMAT’ stands for American Telly” on her Instagram account. 

She thanked Kimmel afterwards on Instagram for “giving us a shot”.

CMAT was on Jimmy Kimmel Live to promote her album EURO-COUNTRY, which debuted at number one on the Irish Albums Chart last week, narrowly edging out Sabrina Carpenter’s Man’s Best Friend.

It’s the third consecutive chart-topping album for the Dunboyne artist.

CMAT, real name Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson, previously topped the charts with If My Wife New I’d Be Dead (2022) and Crazymad For Me (2023), the latter earning a Mercury Prize nomination.

CMAT is currently in the US on a North American tour, and will later perform a number of shows across the UK next month, before a 3Arena gig on 5 December.

Next year, she will perform her biggest Irish headline shows yet, with a sold-out performance at Dublin’s St. Anne’s Park on 30 May.

Mercury Prize

Hours after her appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live, CMAT was shortlisted for a Mercury Prize for album of the year for EURO-COUNTRY.

The annual Mercury Prize is awarded for the best album by a British or Irish act and is open to all music genres.

It’s the second year in a row that CMAT has been nominated for this prize, having been in the running last year for her second studio album, ‘Crazymad, for Me’.

In total, 12 albums have made the shortlist and CMAT is joined on the list by Fontaines D.C. for their album ‘Romance’.

This year, the Mercury Prize will move beyond London for the first time ever, with the awards show instead taking place on 16 October at the Utilita Arena in Newcastle.

‘Lies on top of lies’

Elsewhere, for the second night in a row Jimmy Kimmel used his opening monologue last night to poke fun at Donald Trump’s alleged birthday letter to Jeffrey Epstein.

“Even his lies have other lies on top of them,” said Kimmel on last night’s show which featured CMAT as a musical guest.

“He said, ‘I don’t even do drawings’, and then immediately, 25 drawings he did came out, which he had to know would happen, but he can’t help it.”

One such sketch, of a city skyline, was signed by Trump in 2004 and described by him as being made in 2003, the same year Maxwell compiled the book of letters. 

Another sketch, featuring a crude drawing of a bridge along with Trump’s signature, was sold with a description that it was drawn “circa 2006”, the same year that the Epstein was first arrested for sexual abuse.

Trump’s “original artwork”, in the form of a sketch of a “money tree”, has been auctioned off as recently as 2020.