You may not know Samantha Mumba, but you may recognise her biggest hit. “Gotta Tell You” charted in 17 countries in 2000 and 2001, climbing all the way to No. 1 in Ireland and New Zealand. She also cracked the top 10 in seven countries, including the US, Australia, the UK and France. Since then she’s slightly disappeared, and in 2011 she even announced her retirement from music to focus on her acting career in the States.
But there’s good news for all y’all Mumba fans: she can’t stay away from music. In 2013 she took part in the Irish TV show “The Hit” with the song “Somebody Like Me”. She made it into the final, but lost to Finbar Furey (another famous Irish singer).
And now she’s gearing up for an even bigger re-launch. Samantha has announced that she will release a new single on the 21st of February, coincidentally the same week as Eurosong 2014 in Ireland. Since the announcement rumours have been flying around the Twittersphere, the blogosphere, and every other sphere occupied by Eurovision fans.
If she does decide to represent the Emerald Isle, winner of ESC on seven different occasions, could she win Dublin her eighth? Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We have to keep in mind that recently the UK has sent famous old crooners (no offence intended), and have not exactly had the best results…
The Irish National Final will take place on the 28th of February on the Late Late Show at around 9:30PM.
William Cahill contributed this report from Ireland, and is one of our Irish correspondents. Follow the team from wiwibloggs.com on Twitter @wiwibloggs and keep up with the latest Eurovision news by liking our Facebook page.
Photo: Popdust
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I thought she gave up singing to focus more on acting.
If she enters, though, I hope they have a very good song for her.
Excellent choice if she does Eurovision. She has international appeal and some of er songs have been pretty. I just downloaded her song from Legally Blonde…I didn’t know she was on the soundtrack. I like the song a lot. I think she has a good shot. It all depends on the song.
It seems incredidbly rude to call a 31 year old OLD. Bear in mind, Loreen is 30, Nikki from Azerbaijan was 30/31 at the time. The notion that she’s too old is ridiculous and mostly just a bit genderist about beauty. the problem with humperdinck and tyler was not so much their age, but that neither had had recent hits, or been around in pop culture much in the past few years. Depending on the song, Samantha Mumba could be a credible choice. Who knows why Mumba’s career derailed so fast. Gina G’s post eurovision career was stalled by contract… Read more »
We’ll have to see what comes of it! & if she is competing, what her song will be like 🙂 But thanks for the throwback.. completely forgot about this song lol!
Samantha Mumba does provide some good memories, though. “Always Come Back to Your Love” anyone?
It depends how the song is. 31 is not too old to revive a pop career. Her recent charting song sounded quite good, too, although I wasn’t listening to it too carefully.
@Padraig Jude: No I don’t feel intimidated to actually say what’s on my mind … I hope that does not bother you. I pay more attention to solid and hardworking built careers of a lot of people in music … not necessarily attempt of comebacks hiatus after hiatus …like it tends to happen lately in the UK. That just shows that if it does not work once twice … you should rethink you professional choices instead of relying on fame that is way in the past. Music was not meant for everybody plus the atrocious music industry does not embrace… Read more »
@Charles you seem to have a problem with practically everything, or so it would seem. And just FYI Samantha already made a comeback when she got to number 5 in the Irish charts last summer – http://youtu.be/491va1Y-0XM
Personally I think she’d be a great choice, that is if there’s any substance to the rumours.
I have a problem with these new wave of 90s and early 00s act trying to come back … this whole Big Reunion show has been nothing but a joke and I can’t take these formers pop acts that seriously … the same way I felt back in those days. The same goes for Samantha … If your career was short-lived for like 2 or 3 years and then you were no longer to be found or heard, I have doubts it will have any impact trying to come back out of obscurity. Just my personal thoughts but good luck… Read more »
She only just turned 31, so I wouldn’t say she’s that old. If the year was still 2000 she would’ve had a very good chance of winning with that song, but nowadays I don’t know if someone who was that popular awhile ago would be able to change their style to something popular with the current generation. Think Geri Halliwell, her attempt at a 2013 pop hit was terrible and if BBC pick her for this year it’d be a big mistake. But of course, we can’t judge on who’d be good and who’d be bad without hearing their song… Read more »
* wouldn’t say she is old
I would say she is old .. Then again I don’t see the problem sending older singers .. The UK has done badly in last 2 years not because of singers age but because the songs were generic and totally average ..
Johnny Logan singing something like prayin would do very well at eurovision ..
How exciting .. I think she is great and can pull it off live ..
I prefer Sinead Mulvey (2009, even those Ireland came very close to reaching the final back then) xD