Here comes an Irish Times public service warning: within the next 12 months the Irish pop music contingent will completely rule the world. Just look at the respective successes of The Corrs, Boyzone, B*witched and Westlife and wonder at not only the commercial potency of cheap music but how the masses are sucked in by white suits, jig-pop and cover versions. Well, we can now add another name to the growing pile of, er, Hiberno hip hop pop: Samantha Mumba. There is a difference, however, between the Corrz and the boyz and the girlz and this particular girl. The difference between Samantha and the stretched, smiling faces of the elder generation of Irish pop stars is that she's the nearest thing we have to a genuine R&B pop star.
A Billy Barry kid from the age of three, it's only over the past couple of years that 17-year-old Samantha has been going out and nabbing individual auditions. She stopped stepping out with the Billy Barry team at the age of 15 when she clinched her first lead dancing/singing/acting role in a show called The Hot Mikado, a revue based on the songs of comic opera duo, Gilbert & Sullivan. Bye bye, then, to semi-pro imitations of Riverdance, Madonna and Michael Jackson, and hello to welcome-to-the-real-world of rehearsals. "It was a ball and set me off on the path to where I'm on now," says Samantha. "I had to have an American accent, which I pulled off without any real problems."
The American accent is all the more surprising when you take into consideration that Samantha is from Drumcondra, on Dublin's Northside, with an Irish mother and a father from Zambia. Her parents are now separated, and her father, who has been an Irish resident for almost two decades, has experienced more verbal abuse in the past year than ever before. Although Samantha is inevitably as pretty as a model, it was her American accent that got her into this pop lark in the first place when, during work in a pantomime, she heard that Louis Walsh, Boyzone and Westlife's Big Kahuna, frequented the Dublin nightclub, Lillie's Bordello. A little bit cheeky, a little bit shrewd, a large bit courageous. . .
"I was 15 at the time, and I knew I wouldn't have been able to get into the club by myself," says Samantha, "so I went with my mam, and pretended I was an American R&B artist. My American accent went down a treat! So I was sailed on into the VIP room, where Louis Walsh was sitting. I didn't pounce on him there and then, but we ended up swapping phone numbers. He phoned my mum the next day, and he introduced me to a few record companies. I picked the one I got on the best with. The rest is pretty much history."
Samantha is adamant that she is not going to be a one-hit wonder. Although a mere stripling in comparison to her Irish counterparts, she seems aware enough to appreciate the scarifying obsolescence factor within pop music. Hence the decision to focus on the steady European and American markets, rather than the fickle British region. Her influences are the best in latter day R&B: TLC, Fierce, Honeyz, Sister2Sister and Destiny's Child. She says she loves Whitney Houston and eventually wants to veer away from her current love of commercial R&B pop.
"I'm starting off with the commercial R&B pop side of things at the moment. I enjoy it and it suits the age I am. Eventually, I suppose I might grow into straightahead R&B material, the kind that appeals as much to mature kids as adults."
Samantha sees as her obvious rivals in the female pop market the likes of Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera. "There's more than enough room for me to slot in with what's happening. A lot of the tracks on the album have a slightly different edge. My music is very in your face and all about attitude. Britney and Christina are blond, blue-eyed American sweethearts. I'm going for a totally different angle. The only common link is that we're all girls."
What of the way in which seemingly perfect pop careers, initially so hyped, garlanded and acclaimed (just where did Kerri Ann go to?), can go down the tubes without so much as a by-your-leave? "I'm taking everything a day at a time," says Samantha in the sensible tone of a girl who knows that eating carrots can make her see in the dark. "It's one thing Louis Walsh told me - you have to stay grounded. Once you lose your head, it's an illusion, it's over. I'm lucky. I'm doing something that I'd pay someone to do, but now I'm being paid to do it. It's a complete bonus. As for Britney and Christina - I admire them but we're completely different.
"It can go wrong so suddenly, especially when you start believing your own hype. Of course, you've got people saying everything is brilliant, but my main job at the end of the day is to make sure the music is right. I'm here to do the music, dancing and performing. I love performing and I want as many people as possible to hear the music. You can take the compliments but it doesn't mean to say you have to believe them yourself."
Wise words indeed and, frankly, admirable. And as if this wasn't good enough, strong rumour (bordering on the truth, actually) has it that David Bowie has taken an interest in our Sam. Mister Ziggy Stardust is currently in line to direct the video for her second single, Body To Body. It's a song that just so happens to contain an officially-approved sample from Bowie's Ashes To Ashes. But don't tell anyone we told you that. Remember, Mumba's the word.
Samantha Mumba's debut single, Gotta Tell You, is released on June 3rd.
