Live Report: CMAT and Amble triumph at RTÉ Choice Music Prize

Celebrating the diversity and high calibre of Irish music, the RTÉ Choice Music Prize Awards ceremony returned to Vicar St yesterday evening for its 21st edition. Bringing together a wide array of talent from all over the country, the evening showcased groundbreaking and boundary-pushing art in both electrifying newcomers and well-established heavyweights, reaching across all genres and sensibilities.

Capturing Irish art’s profound legacy and continued relevance, the evening was filled with powerful reminders of resilience and high-spirits. Hosted by Tracy Clifford, the awards ceremony was punctuated by live performances ranging from Dunboyne pop princess CMAT to the delicate folk soundscapes of Joshua Burnside and the gritty shoegaze of Just Mustard.

After being announced as the winners of the Irish Song Of The Year Award earlier that day for their track ‘Schoolyard Days’, folk trio Amble were also crowned Breakthrough Irish Artist Of The Year, a distinction presented by KNEECAP’s DJ Provaí, recipient of the award in 2025. Taking the mic, a visibly emotional Robbie Cunningham expressed his gratitude for the distinction, adding that when the three band members “met three years ago, we were two teachers and a data scientist, and the goal was to play in a couple of theatres in Sligo - and here we are now.” Following a hugely fruitful year where the band played 130 gigs in a row, the two prizes appeared as the well-deserved culmination of a truly remarkable amount of work.

RTE Music Choice Awards at Vicar St on March 5, 2026. Copyright Jason Doherty/www.hotpress.com

In another impressive feat, pop sensation CMAT also received two honours in the prestigious Irish Artist Of The Year award and the Album Of The Year Award for her 2025 record EURO-COUNTRY. A fitting distinction after the enormous success met by the album, the latter award was presented by Horslips’ Barry Devlin, who has himself received the award for Classic Irish Album Of The Year with The Taín. Accepting the honour in her usual tongue-in-cheek manner, CMAT joked that “the word genius gets thrown around a lot these days, but I think this award proves that I am one!” Before giving a special shout to fellow nominee Junior Brother: “I’ve known him since I was 18, and when we were doing open mics together I used to hate him, because he was the most talented man in the world.” Finally, the musician offered words of love for her native Ireland, and a chant in support of Palestine.

More than these awards, though, the night was made truly special by the wide array of profoundly distinctive live acts who took the Vicar St. stage over the event’s three hours. Kicking off with the delightfully bouncy grooves of Irish-Portuguese outfit pôt-pot, all boasting black outfits and mysterious sunglasses, the night quickly announced itself as a moment to be remembered. With their riff-heavy, psych-rock flavours, the band quickly infused the venue in explosive atmospherics.

RTE Music Choice Awards at Vicar St on March 5, 2026. Copyright Jason Doherty/www.hotpress.com

Next up were the delicate trad-tinged folk tunes of Joshua Burnside, for a simple yet perfectly measured set of guitars and cello. Offering songs both new and taken off his 2025 album Teeth Of Time, the Belfast native explored sounds ranging from quietly compelling ballads to expansive, slightly grandiose tunes, both heavy and gently comforting, carried by political themes and driven by the impressive power of Burnside’s vocal performance.

Kerry star Junior Brother swiftly followed-up, accompanied by a band boasting both a mandolin and a synth, perfectly setting the tone of his album The End and its experimental trad elements, which he performed from this evening. A stand-out performance of the event, the musician delivered a profoundly distinctive offering, where dissonance met dreamy atmosphere, where layered and complex arrangements met delicate and intentional use of silence and empty spaces. Once again, Junior Brother proved himself as a completely unique voice in the Irish music scene.

RTE Music Choice Awards at Vicar St on March 5, 2026. Copyright Jason Doherty/www.hotpress.com

Following up, Dundalk quintet Just Mustard kept up with the atmospheric soundscape as they performed tracks from their mystifying new album We Were Just Here. Shoegazy, ethereal and lined with gritty, distorted guitars, the band’s sound was as all-incompassing as it was abrasive, melodic flair still shining through the formidably noisy title track of the record.

RTE Music Choice Awards at Vicar St on March 5, 2026. Copyright Jason Doherty/www.hotpress.com

After these two deliciously disorienting performances, it was time for CMAT to take the stage, where she offered a very different but no-less compelling rendition of three songs from her Hot Press No.1 album of 2025 EURO-COUNTRY. Although offering a solo acoustic set, the singer, with her tongue-in-cheek attitude and incredible vocal range didn’t need any flourishes to deliver one of the most joyful and moving sets of the night. It was very clear, fro the start, that CMAT had her audience at her fingertips, the Vicar St crowd joyfully singing along every word of the viral hit – and Hot Press No.1 single of the year — ‘Take A Sexy Picture Of Me’.

RTE Music Choice Awards at Vicar St on March 5, 2026. Copyright Jason Doherty/www.hotpress.com

Accompanied by a big band and a delighted attitude, Amble were the final and perhaps most hotly anticipated act of the night. Balancing joyous banjo riffs and powerfully emotional soundscapes, the band are as boisterous as they are expansive in their production, making for a profoundly hard-hitting offering. Before wrapping up, Amble offered a final, stripped back ballad that perfectly encapsulated the emotional mood of the evening.

After accepting her final prize in the Album Of The Year Award, CMAT ended this night of performances with her iconic 2022 track ‘I Wanna Be A Cowboy, Baby!’.

This year’s RTÉ Choice Music Prize wrapped up on a distinctively high – a gloriously emotional — note, celebrating a truly outstanding year for Irish music.