Live Report: CMAT offers a glorious homecoming to 3Arena

If you’re anything like me, there is a good chance that you've spent the second half of 2025 under the sign of CMAT. From a superb string of singles, momentous live appearances, and decisive international successes, all leading up to the release of her career-defining third album EURO-COUNTRY (rated a clean 10/10 by Hot Press), saying that the Dunboyne native has been on a roll would be the understatement of the century.

Yet, do not be fooled: despite having nothing left to prove, especially at home, CMAT isn’t letting any of her energy drop. Tonight, on the stage of a sold-out 3Arena, the pop star boasts white sunglasses and a sky-blue bodysuit that matches the cover of her most recent album. The set-up can only announce one thing: we are about to wrap up the year in style.

CMAT at 3Arena on December 5th, 2025. Copyright Abigail Ring/ hotpress.com

Following divinely infectious performances of ‘Janis Joplin’ and ‘The Jamie Oliver Petrol Station’, the musician welcomes her eager crowd to the “Late Late gay show,” and jumps into the glistening ‘I Don’t Really Care For You’. After only 10 minutes on stage, CMAT stops the music to silently point at her Very Sexy CMAT Band, pull faces and variously cheeky pauses to the sound of her audience’s roaring laughter, simply and quickly proving that she is one of Ireland’s most charismatic performers.

“This is such an interestingly big room,” the singer jokes, disbelief evident in her expression. “I totally did not shit myself 15 minutes ago.” If CMAT is nervous, she hides it masterfully behind a boisterous performance of fan favorite ‘2 Wrecked 2 Care’, punctuated by typical shenanigans from her band.

CMAT at 3Arena on December 5th, 2025. Copyright Abigail Ring/ hotpress.com

All throughout the set, CMAT demonstrates time and time again the extent of her vocal prowesses, belting out notes with disconcerting ease without compromising on any of the emotional intensity on tracks like ‘California’ or ‘When A Good Man Cries’ – where she is joined by opening act Fancy Hagood for a deliciously stirring duet that highlights the tune’s gorgeous melodic quality.

Above all, though, it appears absolutely certain how much fun CMAT and her band are having, playing with the tunes’ dramatic tones and but also with their tongue-in-cheek qualities. On ‘Tree Six Foive’, for example, the musicians walk together in line across the stage to the bridge’s tempo, while CMAT turns up her delightful silliness up to a million on ‘Have Fun’, kicking off the track while lying and crawling on the ground, but never forgetting its impeccable choreo. On ‘Where Are Your Kids Tonight’, Colm Conlan effortlessly fills in for John Grant and offers a performance for the ages, lined with a chemistry that is almost palpable.

CMAT at 3Arena on December 5th, 2025. Copyright Abigail Ring/ hotpress.com

From then on, stand-out moments are too numerous to count: from CMAT pointing to Billy Byrne from Ballybrack in the crowd, to an audience member holding up a sign for Blanchardstown shopping centre (which may or may not have been stolen, but who is to say). There’s also the strange feeling of pride when the singer mentions signing her first record deal almost five years ago, at a time where she dreamed of filling up the Olympia in the next ten years. And how could you not be emotional while hearing the gorgeously compelling ‘Take A Sexy Picture Of Me’ in a room filled to the brim with young women who, no doubt, see and recognise themselves in CMAT and her struggles with body image?

CMAT at 3Arena on December 5th, 2025. Copyright Abigail Ring/ hotpress.com

It is all too soon that the show culminates in its gloriously powerful encore, heart tightening-up helplessly as the crowd sings back every word of ‘EURO-COUNTRY’’s Irish-language intro. Performed at home, the track hits incredibly hard, if the standing ovation it receives is anything to go by.

The two-step that accompanies the magnificently emotional ‘I Wanna Be A Cowboy, Baby!’ seems almost unreal when picked-up by 13,000 audience members, the crowd moving in perfect synchronisation in a water-like motion. Up on the stage, it’s evident that CMAT can’t believe her eyes either.

CMAT at 3Arena on December 5th, 2025. Copyright Abigail Ring/ hotpress.com

Even though the Very Sexy CMAT Band have been on stage for almost two hours, it is with noticeable disappointment that the musician announces the final tune of the evening ‘Stay For Something’ – although both the performers and the crowd offer a worthy finale of unending energy and riotous singing that cannot leave anyone unsatisfied.

As, behind the scene, CMAT dashes over to the RTÉ studio to surprise the Virgin Mary Girls School Choir on the Late Late Toy Show, the pop princess leaves her audience certain of one thing: she is one of the best acts to come out of Ireland in recent years, and I have no doubt that she has a lot more in store for the future.