Irish singer-songwriter CMAT has spoken out about ongoing body-shaming abuse following her performance at BBC Radio 1 Big Weekend in Sunderland on 24 May. In an Instagram post on Thursday, the musician, whose real name is Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson, expressed her 'deep sadness' over the treatment she has received.
CMAT shared screengrabs of a Substack essay by music fan Front Row Feels, which highlighted the disparity in how she was treated compared to fellow acts Zara Larsson and Olivia Dean. The essay noted that Larsson and Dean 'were granted a level of grace and basic humanity that was completely denied to CMAT'.
The singer wrote that her success is 'increasingly becoming tarnished by the fact that I would be allowed to enjoy it so much more if I was thin'. She emphasised that her body size is not a choice, stating: 'I simply have a body, one that I would of course like to change in order to fit in and avoid all of this abuse, but I have had extreme difficulty in doing so.'
CMAT, who last year released the single 'Take a Sexy Picture of Me' criticising scrutiny of women's bodies, is currently touring her third album 'Euro-Country', with a sold-out Dublin show scheduled for Saturday.
