The Dunboyne singer won the big Irish Album of the Year 2025 prize at the RTE Choice Music Prize tonight.
The main award of the night is chosen by a room of judges presiding over their chosen shortlist on the night of the live event, which tonight saw performances from Amble, Just Mustard, Junior Brother, Pot-Pot, Joshua Burnside and CMAT played solo with her family in the audience.
It was the 21st annual Choice Music Prize.
Here’s her acceptance speech in full – CMAT performed ‘I Wanna Be A Cowboy Baby’ in a nod to her previous win for the prize where she wasn’t able to attend in 2023.
Ciara Mary Alice Thompson also won the Irish Artist of the Year award, which I was the chairperson for, and Amble won the Irish Breakthrough Artist of the year.
Horslips won the Classic Irish album prize for their 1974 album The Táin and Amble won the public vote for Irish song of the year for their song ‘Schoolyard Days’.
Barry Devlin from Horslips announced the Irish album prize announcement in Vicar St after the judging panel, made up of Irish music media professionals, and chaired by Jim Carroll, gathered this evening to decide on the winning album.
CMAT received a cheque for €10,000, a prize which has been provided by the Irish Music Rights Organisation (IMRO) and the Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA), as well as a specially commissioned award.
The event, hosted by RTÉ 2FM’s Tracy Clifford, took place live in Vicar St and was broadcast live on 2FM with Beta Da Silva, included exclusive performances from six of the nominated artists.
Choice Music Prize 2025 Shorlist
- Amble – Reverie
- Bricknasty – Black’s Law
- Joshua Burnside – Teeth of Time
- CMAT – EURO-COUNTRY
- Dove Ellis – Blizzard
- Junior Brother – The End
- Just Mustard – WE WERE JUST HERE
- pôt-pot – Warsaw 480km
- Maria Somerville – Luster
- SPRINTS – All That Is Over
Choice Music Prize Irish album Judges
Chairperson: Jim Carroll – Editor of RTE Brainstorm
John Barker – Dublin City FM/Tilt
Aoife Barry – Freelance journalist/Get Around To It podcast
Ciara Byrne – Freelance journalist
Tara Carroll – Genuine Irish
Peter Curtin – RTÉ Lyric FM
Sarah Gill – Image magazine
Deb Grant – BBC Radio 6
Angela Hughes – Radio na Life/8Radio
Cathal Murray – RTÉ Radio 1
Roz Purcell – RTE 2fm
Jamie Taylor – BBC Radio Ulster/BBC Radio Foyle
RAAP, Culture Ireland, First Music Contact, Minding Creative Minds, Cultural & Creative Industries Skillnet and Coimisiún na Meán are also official project partners of the RTÉ Choice Music Prize.
Niall Byrne is the founder of the most-influential Irish music site Nialler9, where he has been writing about music since 2005. He is the co-host of the Nialler9 Podcast and has written for the Irish Times, Irish Independent, Sunday Times, Totally Dublin, Cara Magazine, Red Bull and more. Niall is a DJ, co-founder of Lumo Club, event curator, Indie Sleaze club promoter, and producer of gigs and monthly listening parties & events in Dublin.
