CMAT takes Best Album at the 2026 Ivor Novellos

The 71st Ivor Novello Awards with Amazon Music were presented on 22 May 2026 at Grosvenor House, London. Sixteen songwriters and composers received prizes across 14 categories, and 37 per cent of the recipients were recognised for the first time. The Ivors Academy runs the ceremony as a celebration of songwriting and screen composition rather than chart performance alone.

Irish writer CMAT won Best Album for EURO-COUNTRY, published in the UK by BMG Rights Management. Sam Fender was named Songwriter of the Year with Amazon Music following the run of his 2025 album People Watching, and Elton John presented the award. Elsewhere on the night, Kae Tempest and Fraser T Smith took Best Contemporary Song for I STAND ON THE LINE; George Michael and Thom Yorke received Academy Fellowships; Lily Allen won Outstanding Song Collection; Calvin Harris received the PRS for Music Icon Award; Rosalía was named International Songwriter of the Year; and Linda Perry took the Visionary Award with Amazon Music.

CMAT and a third-album prize

Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson, known professionally as CMAT, was born on 23 February 1996. She is a Dublin-born singer and songwriter who spent her childhood in Clonee and Dunboyne, County Meath. She later returned to Dublin to study at Trinity College but left before finishing her degree. From a young age she set out to be a professional musician. After performing under another name, she returned to Ireland and began releasing songs independently online, drawing attention for a style built on storytelling, sharp construction and a dry sense of 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 won the Choice Music Prize for Irish Album of the Year in March 2023. The same year brought the follow-up Crazymad, For Me, with singles including Mayday and Whatever's Inconvenient. EURO-COUNTRY arrived in 2025, preceded and accompanied by tracks such as Aw, Shoot! and When A Good Man Cries. The Ivor for Best Album places that third studio record inside a short, rapid climb: from independent uploads to an Irish number one, a national album prize, and now a UK songwriting honour judged by peers.

Fender, fellowships and the rest of the room

Sam Fender, from North Shields, has built his reputation on a high tenor voice and a Geordie accent set over roots-leaning music with a clear British rock backbone. Songwriting has been the centre of the work from the start. People Watching, released in 2025, followed a run of singles and earlier records that established him as a writer of scale; live versions tied to the O2 Arena and London Stadium kept the album in circulation through the year. Naming him Songwriter of the Year, with Elton John on stage to present the award, marks the industry’s formal reading of that run.

The Academy Fellowships sit at the other end of the evening’s arc. George Michael, who died in 2016, is honoured for a songwriting legacy that stretches from the Wham! years through a long solo catalogue. Thom Yorke’s fellowship recognises decades of work as a writer. Lily Allen’s Outstanding Song Collection points to a body of songs rather than a single release. Calvin Harris’s PRS for Music Icon Award, Rosalía’s International Songwriter of the Year title and Linda Perry’s Visionary Award with Amazon Music complete a list that mixes first-time winners with established catalogues.

What the night underlines is the Academy’s brief: the craft of the song, from Dublin country-inflected writing to North Shields rock, from a contemporary single to catalogues already fixed in the culture. EURO-COUNTRY’s Best Album win gives CMAT a UK peer prize to set beside the Choice Music Prize; Fender’s Songwriter of the Year title locks in the standing of People Watching. The rest of the roll call — fellowships, icon and visionary awards, an international songwriter prize — shows how wide that brief still runs.