'I've been touring for six years': CMAT announces she will take a break in 2027
CMAT pictured during her energetic performance on stage at Virgin Media Park, Cork. Picture: Chani Anderson.
CMAT has revealed that she will not be performing live music in 2027, saying she is “literally losing [her] mind” after non-stop touring for the last six years.
Speaking on an episode of a BBC Radio 6 podcast, she opened up to Annie MacManus about how her work schedule had become too much.
She touched on how she has to plan a holiday a year and a half in advance because of her busy schedule, and told MacManus that she is looking forward to taking a whole month off this October because she is burnt out.
She went on to reveal that she is “not performing any live music at all” next year because she is “losing [her] mind” after six years of touring.
“The next calendar year, in 2027, I’m not performing any live music at all. I don’t know if I was supposed to say that, but that’s what’s happening. And I don’t care – you can come fight me if you want,” she said.
CMAT also confirmed she would be fully stepping back from any working commitments, including recording new music.
“I’ve been on tour for six years and I’m literally losing my mind. And I don’t stop. In the six years post-covid basically, because my career started during covid, any time I had a three-to-four-month period off, I made a record. The rest of the bad went away sunning their holes, whatever they wanted to do, going with their sexy boyfriends off to Los Angeles and I was like a gremlin chained to the mixing desk,” she explained.
The singer-songwriter has been touring in support of her 2025 album, which won her the Best Album award at the Ivor Novello Awards 2026.
The tour included a headline concert at Dublin’s St Anne’s Park and Cork’s Musgrave Park (Virgin Media Park).
On top of that, she’s made festival appearances at Coachella, TRNSMT, Mad Cool, Bilbao BBK Live and, most recently, Eden Sessions in Cornwall, where there was backlash to a decision made by organisers to move CMAT’s set time to accommodate a screening of the World Cup semi-final clash between Argentina and England on Wednesday. – a decision that was reversed.
“Sorry, girls, trying to find a slightly better solution to the CMAT and World Cup clash at Eden Sessions.. hang in there. Can’t even begin to tell you the psychic damage this is causing me. CMAT should never be mentioned in the same sentence as either 'football' or 'England',” she wrote on her Instagram stories before confirming that the set had been changed back to its original time.
During the podcast episode, CMAT and MacManus also touched on the World Cup final half-time performance featuring Justin Bieber, Madonna, Shakira, BTS, and Burna Boy. The pair also discuss Charli XCX’s album campaign, Rose Gray’s new single, and Kelela’s collaboration with PinkPantheress.
They also chat Taylor Swift’s best work, the truth about the crowd at Madonna and Sabrina Carpenter at Coachella, a possible lip-syncing epidemic, and CMAT’s burgeoning friendship with Robbie Williams.
