CMAT’s EURO-COUNTRY Wins RTÉ Choice Music Prize Album of the Year 2025
CMAT has once again cemented her position as a leading voice in Irish music, taking home the RTÉ Choice Music Prize Irish Album of the Year 2025 for EURO-COUNTRY. The announcement was made last night, , at a ceremony held at Vicar Street in Dublin, following deliberations by a panel of Irish music media professionals chaired by Jim Carroll.
This marks the second time the artist, often referred to as ‘Dunboyne Diana’, has received the prestigious award. She previously won in 2022 for her debut album, If My Wife Knew I’d Be Dead. The win for EURO-COUNTRY comes with a €10,000 prize, provided by the Irish Music Rights Organisation (IMRO) and the Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA), along with a specially commissioned award.
The event, hosted by RTÉ 2FM’s Tracy Clifford, wasn’t solely a celebration of CMAT’s achievement. It also featured live performances from six of the nominated artists, offering a showcase of the breadth and depth of Irish musical talent. The evening also saw Amble crowned winners of the RTÉ Choice Music Prize Irish Song of the Year for “Schoolyard Days,” a victory determined by public vote through the RTÉ 2FM and Choice Music Prize websites.
Amble’s success didn’t stop there. The band also secured the Breakthrough Irish Artist of the Year award, presented by DJ Próvai of KNEECAP. CMAT herself was further recognized, receiving the Irish Artist of the Year award, presented by Beta Da Silva of RTÉ 2FM.
The ceremony also took time to honor the legacy of Irish music, with veteran rock band Horslips receiving the Classic Irish Album award for their 1973 LP, The Táin. Barry Devlin, Eamon Carr, and Jim Lockhart of Horslips accepted the award on stage, welcomed by Louise Duffy of RTÉ Radio 1.
EURO-COUNTRY, released on , through CMATBaby and AWAL, has clearly resonated with both critics and the public. The album, as detailed on Wikipedia, explores themes of “loss, pain and lack of community that she feels are suffering from under modern capital isolation,” and CMAT herself has described it as “the best thing she has ever made.”
The album’s journey to release wasn’t without its minor controversies. According to CMAT’s social media posts, the opening of the song “Euro-Country,” which features over 40 seconds of Irish language lyrics, was edited during its first play on BBC Radio 1. CMAT initially stated she was unaware of the edit, but the BBC later maintained they had broadcast a radio edit supplied by the record company.
The album cover itself is a striking visual, depicting CMAT emerging from a fountain in a shopping center near her hometown of Dunboyne. This imagery is a deliberate reference to Jean-Leon Gerome’s 1896 painting, “Truth Coming Out of Her Well,” adding another layer of artistic depth to the project.
The full shortlist for the 2025 RTÉ Choice Music Prize Album of the Year included a diverse range of artists and sounds: Amble – Reverie; Bricknasty – Black’s Law; Joshua Burnside – Teeth of Time; Dove Ellis – Blizzard; Junior Brother – The End; Just Mustard – WE WERE JUST HERE; pôt-pot – Warsaw 480km; Maria Somerville – Luster; and SPRINTS – All That Is Over.
Established in 2005, the RTÉ Choice Music Prize has turn into a cornerstone of the Irish music industry, recognizing and celebrating the best in recorded Irish music. Previous winners of the Album of the Year award include Fontaines D.C. For Romance and Lankum for False Lankum, demonstrating the prize’s commitment to showcasing a wide spectrum of Irish musical talent. CMAT’s second win solidifies her place among the most critically acclaimed and commercially successful artists in Ireland today.