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Forget Lou Bega, there’s a new “Mumba" in town, only she’s a hot new R&B/Pop singer who destined for number one, not number five. Her name is Samantha Mumba, and she is the newest girl in town. Quick stats: she’s young (a tender eighteen years old), she’s African-Irish (a unique combination) and she’s got a voice that many contemporaries would kill for.
Samantha Mumba defies the notion that only American artists can make quality chart-topping music. While there aren’t many artists helping her stake the European soul invasion, Mumba is determined to succeed. She notes “I’m black and I’m from Ireland. It’s kinda like, uh-oh…but it means I’m something totally different. There are a lot of female artists my age around at the moment, but their all American and blonde and blue-eyed and smiley. I’m totally the opposite of that. I want to show a bit more attitude and I have an opinion…".
Her music finds comparisons in a wide range of current artists. Listening to her debut album Gotta Tell You, one hears artists as diverse as Britney Spears, Destiny’s Child, Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston. Polished and poppy, her music will find an audience as this format is the current “in" format on radio and music television.
How does one so young make such global waves? Through determination, whatever her age may be. Leaving school early, Samantha Mamba had little to worry about in the real world.
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Samantha Mumba @ CanEHdian | |
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After hooking up with the manager of Westlife and Boyzone and the Polydor label, Mamba embarked in countless studio sessions, television appearances and practice performances.
These made her somewhat of a local celebrity in her native Ireland before heading overseas to attack the golden American market.
No matter how Samantha Mumba succeeds, she keeps her life in perspective, and her progression to where she is. “At home, stage school’s totally different from the way it seems in England. We just went down for a laugh. It wasn’t about competing against each other at all. It’s funny because I grew up with Brian from Westlife – he was at the stage school when I was. We’d probably have been the least expected to make it out of everybody. He was a joker, and I was a dosser – always having a laugh, not taking it seriously either…". A wise position to take, for someone so young, and so is the story of Samantha Mumba.
Erin Boyle, CanEHdian.com (with notes from Universal Music). Copyright 2000.
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