CMAT opens SNL UK season two with Irish and Euro-Country

More than forty seconds of Irish before the title track, a monologue turn with Jeff Goldblum, and a second season scheduled through October on Sky and NOW.

CMAT made her debut as the musical guest on the second-season premiere of Saturday Night Live UK on 12 September 2026. Hosted by Jeff Goldblum and broadcast on Sky and NOW, the episode opened the second season, following a first season that began in March 2026.

The Irish singer-songwriter performed Euro-Country, the title track of her 2025 album, and Stay for Something from her 2023 album. The introduction to Euro-Country carried more than forty seconds of singing in Irish. She also appeared with Goldblum in the opening monologue segment. Reaction on social media was warm, with fans calling her “our girl”.

The run of records behind the set

Born Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson on 23 February 1996, CMAT started life in Dublin and spent her childhood in Clonee and Dunboyne, County Meath. She later returned to the capital to study at Trinity College, left before completing the degree, and spent a brief period in Denmark at a songwriting camp. From a young age she had aimed at a professional life in music. A spell in Manchester under the name Bad Sea was followed by a return to Ireland and a series of independent releases online that drew attention for their storytelling and humour.

Her debut studio album, If My Wife New I’d Be Dead, was released in February 2022 and entered the Irish Albums Chart at number one. It went on to win the Choice Music Prize for Irish Album of the Year in March 2023. The same year brought the album Crazymad, For Me, and singles including Mayday and Whatever’s Inconvenient, with the striking video for Peter Bogdanovich among the accompanying releases. EURO-COUNTRY followed in 2025, framed by the single When A Good Man Cries. The catalogue also includes earlier singles such as I Wanna Be a Cowboy, Baby! and 2 Wrecked 2 Care, an Apple Music Home Session, and a live EP recorded at a Dublin show.

Her songs have been widely noted for emotional insight, careful construction and a distinctive comic streak. That combination has carried her from independent uploads to chart-topping albums at home and a growing audience on the road.

Touring the album, then the television stage

At the time of the SNL UK appearance, the Irish-language passage at the head of Euro-Country gave the premiere an unmistakable local stamp on a show aimed at British and Irish screens alike.

SNL UK’s second season is scheduled for an initial run of episodes through October 2026. CMAT’s turn as musical guest therefore sits at the front of a series that still has months of programming ahead. For a songwriter who left Trinity, tried Manchester, came home and built a catalogue one independent release at a time, the Goldblum-hosted premiere offered a plain measure of how far that run has travelled: two songs, a monologue spot, Irish on the intro, and a national television audience on the night the new season began.