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It is 27 years since Jamie Oliver first appeared on TV as The Naked Chef, bish-bash-boshing his way to cultural ubiquity thanks in part to his rock’n’roll credentials: his band Scarlet Division provided the show’s theme tune, and his love of Toploader made their cover of Dancing in the Moonlight a monumental hit. Since then, music has, for better or worse, dwindled in Oliver’s now-global brand – an unwieldy commercial force that inadvertently inspired one of 2025’s best songs.
Last year, Irish pop star CMAT put out her third album, Euro-Country, whose highlight was an ecstatic indie epic called The Jamie Oliver Petrol Station, released just before her standout set at Glastonbury. The lyrics recall the singer being at one of the Shell garages that sell Oliver’s line of salads and sandwiches, and losing the plot at the sight of the chef’s face. “I needed deli, but God, I hate him,” sings CMAT (AKA Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson), though it is less a weird diss track, and more about her relationship with irrational hatred in a confusing world: critic Dorian Lynskey praised it as a “tragicomedy of misdirected anger”.
The first time Oliver heard it, he wondered: “What have I done wrong?” he told the Guardian. “I couldn’t really work it out.” Then his phone started buzzing. Contrary to the song’s lyrics about how CMAT knows she shouldn’t be “a bitch / The man’s got kids and they wouldn’t like this”, Oliver’s daughters and their friends all loved it.
In February, coincidentally on CMAT’s 30th birthday, Oliver followed her on Instagram. She saw her chance and asked if he wanted to film a video for the song. Two days later, they were shooting in the new Leicester Square outpost in London of the 50-year-old chef’s revived Jamie’s Italian restaurant chain, a couple of weeks ahead of its grand reopening. (After collapsing in 2019, the chain is now returning to the British high street.) “I’ve got massive respect for the creative arts and music, and I know how hard it is now more than ever,” says Oliver. “When CMAT asked me to be in the video, I was 100% in.”
Debuted at CMAT’s headlining show at London’s Alexandra Palace on Friday night, the clip cuts between CMAT and her so-called “Very Sexy CMAT Band” performing in a 60s television-style studio, and Oliver fretting during a stressful day in the restaurant kitchen. He disappears to his office and spots CMAT on a TV screen, inspiring an escapist reverie: cut to her appearing in his empty restaurant and wailing the song’s climax as Oliver pounds the drums, just as he did in Scarlet Division. He’s “still got it” behind the kit, says CMAT. “Never lost it.” Not only were his team “lovely”, she adds, “they very kindly fed us after we were done.”
The shoot was chaotic, recalls Oliver, taking place “during chef and staff training week” at the new restaurant. “Furniture was still arriving, we hadn’t finished decorating … My team thought I was completely mad, but they loved it.” As did he, chatting with CMAT about food, life, “the beauty of having a string section on a track, the fact that her drummer comes from Essex”, as he does. “It was about having a laugh and I’ve always been a firm believer that you’ve got to be able to laugh at yourself.”
With the Shell sandwiches, he explains, “I was just trying to up the game at the petrol station, trying to get some decent food-on-the-go options for people.” He understands what CMAT was getting at in the song now. “We all live in a world where we make assumptions without understanding the whole picture.” He hopes, however, “she finds me less annoying now”.
These days, Oliver can be found listening to Portuguese singer-songwriter Maro, British stars Loyle Carner and Tom Misch, UK garage godfather MJ Cole, “and obviously I’m a fan of all the Britpop that is coming back”.
Would CMAT return the favour and star in Oliver’s next festive special? “I believe my invite is in the post,” she says.
