Personal life
Mumba was born in Drumcondra, Dublin, Ireland. Her father Peter Mumba is a Zambian aircraft engineer and her mother Barbara is Irish and works as cabin crew with the Irish airline Aer Lingus. Her brother Omero Mumba is an actor. She attended Dublin's renowned Billie Barry Stage School from ages 3 to 15. In 1998, she was cast as the lead in The Hot Mikado, a jazzy production based on Gilbert and Sullivan's opera.
Music career
Gotta Tell You
At the age of 15, Mumba was discovered on an RTÉ TV talent show Let Me Entertain You by Irish svengali Louis Walsh (manager of Boyzone and Westlife). Walsh was impressed by her talent and she was signed to Polydor Records. She subsequently spent several months moving between Denmark, Sweden, the UK and Ireland where she co-wrote and recorded her debut album, Gotta Tell You. She eventually dropped out of school to focus on her music career, explaining that it was becoming difficult to stay in school and work on her music.
Mumba's first single, "Gotta Tell You," was released in 2000 and shot to the No. 1 spot in three Irish charts. It later reached No. 2 in the United Kingdom charts. Samantha also had success in the USA with her debut single which peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and she was seen as the face of the fashion designer Louise Kennedy's Spring/Summer collection. The album Gotta Tell You stayed on the charts for a staggering 6 months and was eventually certified Platinum for shipments of 1 million copies. Five more Top 10 hits followed in the UK and she had another top 50 hit in the US, leading some at the time to call her the "black Britney Spears", although she has rejected this title. 1 To date, her first album has sold over 4 million copies worldwide. Mumba was nominated for a 2002 Grammy Award for her song "Baby, Come Over (This Is Our Night)" in the 'best remixed recording, non-classical' category, but did not win.
She also became a Dior ambassador when she launched the Dior Watch Collection in Ireland, became the face of Reebok appearing in print advertising in the UK and Ireland for the Quest range and was voted the Smash Hits Poll Winners' Party Best New Female.
Woman
In 2002, Mumba became a special representative for UNICEF Ireland and prepared to release her sophomore album Woman, but due to the poor sales of the lead single "I'm Right Here" in the US and a short lived time on the UK chart, she was dropped from her label and the album was cancelled.
In 2004, Mumba received international press coverage when she wore a dress made of 3,000 diamonds costing £5million by Scott Henshall to the premiere of Spider-Man 2.
Samantha stated on the Late Late Show (9th February 2007) that there never was a second album and the tracks leaked on the internet were attempts by her to find a new sound.
The Collection
A compilation album of her songs, The Collection, was released on October 23, 2006 to many online retailers. It peaked at 17,901 on Amazon.co.uk in music sales.
New Album / Get Your Act Together
Mumba has been working on her third studio album. Throughout the latter months of 2006 and early 2007, she took part in Channel 4 show Get Your Act Together, fronted by Harvey Goldsmith. The aim of the show is to revive music careers.
She recorded most of her demo tracks in Los Angeles, California, United States.
On 1 March, Samantha performed at the Pigalle Club performing a showcase to record companies & celebrities. She is also doing a nightclub show at Limerick's Trinity Rooms on Sunday March 18th to showcase her new grittier club sound.
Samantha was to begin her comeback with a concert in Dublin's Vicar Street on March 2, but this was cancelled on 27 February after only 30 tickets had been sold.
Samantha is currently said to be in talks with four management companies, including 19 Management who have managed the Spice Girls.
Samantha has said that the next single and album will be released in the US, Europe and Australia. It is rumoured that the album will be released first in the US. Both the album and single were scheduled to be released in March 2007.[citation needed]. Three new tracks from Samantha have leaked on her Myspace page in early February entitled Angel, Rear View, and Personalities.
Personalities, produced by Timbaland & Nate "Danjahandz" Hills, has been confirmed as her comeback single and has been released to Irish and American radio.
Film & Television Career
Films
After the cancellation of Woman, Mumba's music career was put on hold and she began auditioning for films. In 2002, Steven Spielberg picked her to play Mara in The Time Machine. Mara is a girl who is part of a human civilisation which has regressed to a hunter/gatherer lifestyle in the year 802701 AD. She co-starred with Guy Pearce and the movie earned $56,684,819 at the U.S. Box Office. Mumba's performance as Mara was highly rated.
Mumba's second venture into films was in 2003, where she appeared in the Irish film Spin The Bottle. In 2005, Mumba returned to acting with the lead role of Jessica in the Irish horror/comedy Boy Eats Girl. The movie was a success in Ireland and was consquently released worldwide, but it had little success outside the UK and Ireland.
In 2006, Mumba started in the thriller Nailed, playing the character Sapphire. The movie was originally a low budget Irish film but it caught the attention of an American producer who turned it into a big budget British movie.[citation needed]. Johnny Was is a British gangster movie. Mumba co-starred beside Vinnie Jones and Eriq La Salle, playing Rita, the girlfriend of the drug dealer Julius. 2007 saw Mumba finshing filming her part in the movie 3 Crosses.
TV Show
Samantha confirmed on the Late Late Show, 9th February 2007, that a camera crew has been following her on and off for the past 6 months for a Reality TV show which was shown on Channel 4 at the end of March 2007. The show is called Get Your Act Together with Harvey Goldsmith and follows Mumba's attempts to revive her music career with Harvey Goldsmith as her mentor.
