Samantha Mumba
| Samantha Mumba | |
|---|---|
Mumba in 2009
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Samantha Tamania Anne Cecilia Mumba |
| Born |
18 January 1983 Dublin, Ireland |
| Genres | Dance-pop, R&B |
| Occupation(s) | Singer, songwriter, actress |
| Years active | 1999–Present |
| Labels | |
| Associated acts | Jay R Sillona, Steve Lee |
Samantha Tamania Anne Cecilia Mumba (born 18 January 1983) is an Irish singer and actress. She shot to fame in 2000 with the release of her debut single "Gotta Tell You", which reached the Top 10 in Ireland, United Kingdom and the United States. After a relatively short music career, she starred in numerous films, most notably in the 2002 film The Time Machine. She has also appeared in a number of Irish independent films. She returned to public attention when she appeared in the 2008 series of Dancing on Ice. In 2011 Mumba confirmed her retirement from music and to focus mainly on her acting career. However, in 2013, Mumba revealed via Twitter that she was back in the studio working on new material.
Mumba was born in Dublin, Ireland. Her father, Peter Mumba, is from Zambia and was formerly an aircraft engineer; her mother is Irish. Mumba attended Dublin's Billie Barry Stage School from the age of three to fifteen. When Mumba was 15 she was discovered on a RTÉ TV talent show Let Me Entertain You by Irish music executive 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 sings contralto. Her first single, "Gotta Tell You", was released in 2000 and reached No. 1 in the Irish charts. It later reached No. 2 in the British charts. She also had success in the USA, with the song peaking at No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100. The album Gotta Tell You stayed on the charts for six months and was eventually certified platinum for sales of 1 million copies. Five more Top 10 hits followed in the UK and she had another top 50 hit in the US. Another hit from this album was "Baby, Come Over", a remixed version of "Baby, Come on Over" and features on the US edition of the album. To date, her first album has sold over 4 million copies worldwide. In 2001, Mumba contributed to the track "You Raise Me Up" by the Celtic Tenors. An EP titled Samantha Sings Christmas was released at Christmas 2001; it is also a bonus disc on rare special editions of Gotta Tell You. In 1998, Mumba was cast as the lead in The Hot Mikado, a jazzy production based on Gilbert and Sullivan's opera. After her second album Woman was cancelled, Mumba's music career was put on hold and she began auditioning for films. Before that, in 2001, following her international success with Gotta Tell You, Arnold Leibovit 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 AD 802,701. She co-starred with Guy Pearce and her real-life brother, Omero. The movie earned $56,684,819 in the US. Mumba's second venture into films was in 2003, where she appeared in the film Spin the Bottle.
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