Samantha Mumba is an Grammy nominated, Irish pop singer and actress.
She was born in Dublin, Ireland, on January 18, 1983. Her mother is
Irish and her father is of Zambian descent. Her full name is Samantha
Tamania Anne Cecilia Mumba.
Samantha was a student at Dublin's renowned Billie Barry Stage School
from the age of 3 to 15. In 1998, she was cast as the lead in The Hot
Mikado, a jazzy 1998 production based on Gilbert and Sullivan's opera.
She was also on serveral Irish television shows which she used the
opportunity to try to get recognised as a singer. Samantha was
eventually discovered at the age of 15 by Irish Svengali Louis Walsh
(manager of Boyzone and Westlife) in a night club pretending she was
an R&B singer from New York recording her debut album with producers
in the city. Walsh was impressed by her talent and she was signed to
Polydor Records. After signing to Polydor, Samantha spent several
months of last year moving between Denmark, Sweden, England and
Ireland, co-writing and recording her debut album, "Gotta Tell You".
She eventually dropped out of school to focus on her music career
because it was becoming a difficult task to stay in school and work on
her music, often losing sleep. Samantha scored her first hit in 2000
when "Gotta Tell You" reached #2 in the UK. She also scored American
success with her debut single, peaking at #4 on the Billboard hot 100
and the album was certified 1x Platinum. Five more Top 10 hits
followed in the UK and another top 50 hit in the US, leading some to
call her the "black Britney Spears" of pop music puting her in the
ranks amongst Christina Aguilera and Jessica Simpson. Her album to
date has sold over 4 million copies world-wide.
Samantha was nominated for a Grammy award for Baby, Come Over (This is
our Night) in the 'best remixed recording, non-classical' category for
the 2002 Grammy Awards, but did not win.
In 2002, Samantha was gearing up to release her follow-up album
entitled "Woman", but with poor sales of the lead single "I'm Right
Here" both in the US and UK, she was dropped from her label and the
album was canceled.
In 2002 Samantha switched from music to movies, starring in the screen
adaptation of H.G. Wells' The Time Machine, in which she plays Mara,
an 800th century tribeswoman. Fans can see her in two more movies in
2005 - Boy Eats Girl and Johnny Was.
In 2004 at the premire of 'Spider Man 2' in London, Samantha arrived
wearing a Spider Man-themed dress worth $9 Million (?5 million) and is
reportly the most expensive dress ever made. The dress has a web-like
design and is cover with 3,000 diamonds. She also wore ?25 million
worth of spider themed diamond jewelery. The Dress Was Designed by
Scott Henshall.
Samantha is currently working on a television show project pulling
stunts and pranks on unsuspecting people. One stunt, which was cover
by the media, included her posing as a nun at the Ireland Presidential
Convention.