Interscope's Samantha Mumba Offers Her Own Slant On Youth Pop

When a song from a debut artist races up the chart as quickly as Samantha Mumba's "Gotta Tell You," which bullets this issue at No. 9 in its ninth week on The Billboard Hot 100, industry observers can't help but wonder how and why. An easier question to answer, however, is, What?

"It's R&B/pop with a Mumba twist," says the 17-year-old Dublin native, who cites Aretha Franklin, Michael Jackson, and Whitney Houston as favorites but makes it clear that "I'm trying to create my own sound—I'm not trying to re-create their sound."

Mumba, whose debut album, also called "Gotta Tell You," is being released Tuesday (31) on Interscope, deftly brushes aside the obvious comparisons with members of the current class of young female singers. "I am Samantha Mumba. I am nobody else," she says. "I'm black and Irish, which is completely different. I co-write my music, I have my own opinions, my own style of dancing. Definitely the music is something different for people to hear, and I won't say it's not.

"On the other hand, I really respect a lot of the other female artists," she says. "It annoys me even seeing them being compared, because as far as I can see, they've got their own slant."

Mumba's Hot 100 coup suggests not only that demand for young pop divas is still high but that Americans are once again opening their ears to acts from Ireland and Britain. Indeed, "Gotta Tell You" has been a smash in those territories, reaching No. 1 and No. 2 on their respective singles charts.

Overseas success, of course, didn't translate for Robbie Williams, the Corrs, or the individual Spice Girls. But Interscope's Steve Berman suggests that with "Gotta Tell You," the tide may be turning. "The song and the sound are so relevant to what's happening," he says. "Seeing how radio really stepped out on this, we feel we're just opening the door with her as an artist and for the whole scene."

Berman adds that Mumba's chart run gives the label hope for the solo stateside debut of another signee, Ronan Keating of Ireland's Boyzone. That boy band shares Mumba's manager, Louis Walsh of Dublin-based Brill Management, but has been unable to break through in the U.S.

The relentless beat and hard vocal attack of "Gotta Tell You" have helped the song fit right in with current top 40 fare. In fact, it may have slipped in a little too well: Listeners may hear "Gotta" alongside offerings from Britney Spears and 'N Sync and not even know a new artist has arrived.

Aware of the predicament, Berman says, "Our job now is to make the connection between this hit single and Samantha as an artist. We're very aggressively marketing to high school students through teen magazines. We handed out 150,000 book covers in the major markets when school came back in session in September. And there is a targeted campaign at powerful Web sites and at Fox Family, Disney, and Nickelodeon for reaching kids."

YM, TeenPeople, and CosmoGirl magazines are set to do stories on Mumba, and America Online has selected her as one of pop's new princesses for a November feature on its music site. Also, the artist, who as yet has no confirmed U.S. tour dates, will appear with S Club 7 and others as part of a concert to be aired on the Disney Channel over Thanksgiving weekend.

If Mumba hasn't distinguished herself by then, follow-up single "Body II Body" (recently released in the U.K.) should do the trick. Incorporating the memorable keyboard tag from David Bowie's "Ashes To Ashes" to hypnotic effect, the tune is slinkier and subtler than much of what's heard on pop radio today.

But the sampling may invite more unwanted comparisons. Just as Jessica Simpson recently borrowed from John Mellencamp's tale of dreams gone wrong "Jack & Diane" to create a frothy primer on flirting ("I Think I'm In Love With You"), "Body" retains the haunting tone of Bowie's original but applies it to, um, crashing a dance party.

In a way, the subject matter of "Body" is part of what makes Mumba's album work so well: It's a collection of songs that, though sophisticatedly produced, sound natural coming from a teenager. There are no disturbingly precocious lines like "Hit me, baby, one more time" and few Christina Aguilera-esque vocal acrobatics. Instead the observations on love seem every bit as straightforward and sweet as diary entries, and they're delivered with an ideal mix of sincerity and style.

The album contains many melodic, hooky treats, and Mumba co-wrote six of them. Among her contributions are the inspiring " 'Til Night Becomes Day," in which she reveals a "slightly gentler, softer side," as well as the aggressive "Baby Come On Over," which, she says, "shows a bit of my personality more than anything else.

"When it comes to guys, I won't march straight up to them and eat them—guys shouldn't be afraid of me, because I'm not like that at all," she explains. "But when it comes to work, I'm very, very strong-minded. I mean, I am new to the music industry, so I can't claim that I know everything—it's a very big learning process. But I do not want to be taken advantage of, and as far as I can help it I will not let myself be taken advantage of."

Of the writing process, Mumba, who is published by Warner/Chappell Music, says, "I wouldn't consider myself a writer yet—it was my first time ever. I found it much easier than I thought it was going to be. I worked with really lovely, down-to-earth Swedish producers [Bag and Arnthor for Murlyn Music]. We played the music on a loop, and we all brainstormed and put our ideas through. They always gave me the last say as to what we actually sang. They quite liked that I was a bit younger and would maybe have a different version or slang of a word as opposed to what they would use."

That process likely led to one of the album's most prescient lyrics, from the funky, TLC-like "What's It Gonna Be": "This baby diva won't queue in line." Clearly, Mumba is on the fast track to stardom.