20 years after she first blew up the charts with her debut hit Gotta Tell You, Samantha Mumba is releasing new music.
Cool is the first single off her upcoming album, which she has described as "sexy", "different" and "more adult".
Speaking to Rebecca and Brendan on 98FM's Big Breakfast, the Drumcondra singer said she wanted to release a song that broke away from traditional song-writing.
Cool "doesn't follow the mould of verse, chorus, bridge", she explained.
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Billboard named Gotta Tell You one of the Greatest Choruses of the 21st Century. Samantha admits listening back to her debut hit is "like reading an old diary".
Mumba has been working on her new album since 2018. She says the record "is where I'm at now. I'm an adult, a woman, a wife, a mother". "This is a little bit sexier, a little bit more fun".
When asked why she took such a long break from music she said "for a long time I think a part of me liked the idea of just leaving things how they had been, rather than doing something and it not work".
"I'm a Capricorn, so a complete overthinker. I think of ten reasons why something would go wrong rather than right".
20 years ago🙈❤️ https://t.co/La0YFSmEjn
— Samantha Mumba (@samanthamumba1) June 9, 2020
Samantha described the music industry when she was first out as "very different" to now, and admitted she is "very excited" to now be working under her own label.
When asked about female Irish singers she's keeping her eye on from LA, Mumba quickly name-checks Soulé and Erica Cody.
Mumba normally comes home to Dublin four to five times a year, planning to stay for two weeks and "ending up staying two months".
Only managing one short trip home for her mother's birthday this year, Samantha described 2020 as "a tough one".
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Apart from friends and family, Mumba says she mostly misses Kearns' sausages, a trip to Penneys and spice bags.
"I'm such a classy girl", she says with a deep laugh.
Cool, the first single from Samantha Mumba's upcoming album, is available to stream and download now.
Check out Samantha's full chat with Rebecca and Brendan from 98FM's Big Breakfast below:
