CMAT condemns body-shaming abuse: “There is no relief from this”
CMAT has condemned the body-shaming abuse she has suffered online following her performance at BBC Radio 1’s Big Weekend.
The Mercury Prize-nominated artist performed at the festival in Sunderland. While she explained that she is off social media for “the preservation of my mental health”, CMAT stated that the “discourse this week appears to be so large that it has still gotten back to me”.
The Irish singer-songwriter shared with her followers, “It’s been very hard to try and describe how difficult the last few days since the bbcr1 big weekend have been, but I came across an essay on Substack by a blog called Front Row Feels which really has summed up a lot of what is causing my deep sadness.”
She wrote, “It is literally so boring for me, a gorgeous genius, to keep having to yap on about how horribly I am treated because of my body.”
CMAT added, “I would love to stop but I cannot because it keeps happening, at an accelerating and worsening pace as I become more famous. There is no relief from this – nobody can protect me or save me from this, and all that is demanded of me is more and more work as every environment I am placed in becomes more hostile.”
The ‘Stay for Something’ singer also insisted to “very well-meaning people” that she wasn’t being “defiant” or attempting to do a “punk rock act of liberty”. Instead, she explained, “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. I don’t get a say in whether or not I want to be brave, I simply have to sit here and take it.”
On the other hand, CMAT did say on a positive note, sharing, “I am at the same time very very happy and grateful every day to have the job that I have. The feeling of seeing all your dreams come true after so many years of constant grinding towards them.”
Nevertheless, CMAT sadly admitted, “The success is increasingly becoming tarnished by the fact that I would be allowed to enjoy it so much more if I was thin.”
She also shared screenshots with her followers from a Substack post by Front Row Feels, which epitomised her feelings.
The performance at BBC Radio 1’s Big Weekend should have been a celebratory moment for CMAT after she won the ‘Best Album’ award at the Ivor Novello Awards for her 2025 album, Euro Country, only last week.
See her full post below.
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