Songoftheday 6/15/22 -Your love for me came as a waterfall, flowin' inside me like never before...

 

 

"Gotta Tell You" - Samantha Mumba

from the album Gotta Tell You (2000)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #4 (one week)

Weeks in the Top-40: 18

 

Today's song comes from Irish pop singer Samantha Mumba, who comes from Dublin, the capital of the country. The daughter of an Irish mother and Zambian father, Mumba got noticed by boyband uber-manager Louis Walsh while still a teen after a local talent show. Signed to the Wild Card Label, Samantha released her debut and what would be her only studio album in the autumn of 2000. The title track from the record, "Gotta Tell You", was released as the lead single. Written by Mumba with the Swedish production team of Anders Bagge and Arnthor Birgisson, the latter pair coming off of the top ten hit from 98 Degrees "Because Of You", the song digs in the same area that Britney, Xtina, and the myriad of boybands mine in in terms of lyrical content. Samantha confesses her desire towards the person she's singing to, in what is definitely a first date vibe that portends to carry it a bit further. Mumba's voice is a low purr like Britney's, instead of a soulful wail, which suits the song a bit better, since it's got a hook that Britney had been trying to replicate on half her earlier singles. The result is a pure pop masterpiece, and the music video which has Mumba (and presumably a stunt double) doing parkour all over town, and she found herself not only an international hit, but a big Stateside success...

"Gotta Tell You" rose all the way to the top ten on the pop Hot 100 chart in America in December of 2000. The song also climbed to #49 on Billboard magazine's R&B singles chart helped by a remix from Teddy Riley, while the club remixes of the track helped it spend a week at #2 on the Dance Club Play list, as well as #21 on the dance-oriented Rhythmic radio format. Internationally, the single spent five weeks at #1 in her native Ireland as well as a week on top in New Zealand, while making the top ten in the UK (#2), Australia (#3), Spain (#6), the Netherlands (#8), Denmark (#8), and France (#9). It also reached the top-40 in Canada (#11), Sweden (#14), Belgium (#15), Switzerland (#17), Norway (#19), Germany (#28), Italy (#36), and Austria (#38). The Gotta Tell You album, released in October of that year, peaked at #67 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, spending over five months on the list.

"Gotta Tell You" was a hit in Europe in the summer of 2000, and in between that and the song hitting in the States, Samantha released a pair of successful singles there. "Body II Body", which samples David Bowie's rock nugget "Ashes To Ashes", made the top ten in Ireland (#2), Belgium (#2F/#40W), the UK (#5), and Iceland (#9). That was followed by the Stargate-produced "Always Come Back To Your Love", which topped the singles chart in Ireland and hit #3 in the UK. Personally, I feel they should've released these to keep the momentum of "Gotta Tell You". But instead, the label released the song "Don't Need You To (Tell Me I'm Pretty)" in America as the follow-up to "Gotta Tell You". Written by song doctor supreme Diane Warren and placed in the hit movie Legally Blonde, the song didn't really fit her sound, and failed to place on the Hot 100. After that, Wild Card/Interscope reissued the Gotta Tell You album, with new track "Baby Come Over (This Is Our Night)" as the second American single. The song interpolated the Kool & The Gang disco nugget "Ladies Night" but was too mid-tempo to stand out as a party track, and while it made it to #14 on the Billboard Dance Club Play chart in remixes, it stopped at #49 on the Billboard pop Hot 100, even though it climbed to #16 on the Mainstream top-40 radio list. The song did better overseas, reaching the top ten in Ireland (#2), Belgium (#2F), and the UK (#5). A sixth single, a remake over American R&B group Divine's "Lately", was a top ten hit in her native Ireland (#3) and the UK (#6).

In 2002, Samantha returned with a new single, "I'm Right Here", co-written by Xscape member, SOTD artist, and future Real Housewife Kandi Burruss and produced by the then upcoming team of Bloodshy and Avant. The song made the top ten in Ireland (#3), the UK (#5), and Belgium (#8F/#10W), but was completely ignored in America, and between that and the record company merger fallout, Mumba was unceremoniously dropped before a second album. 

Ten years later in 2013, after appearing on the Irish song competition show The Hit, Samantha returned with a new single from that show, the ballad "Somebody Like Me", which brought the singer back to the top ten in her Irish home at #5. Most recently, Mumba released a pair of singles in 2020, the boudoir-soul of "Cool" and the adult-pop self-empowerment track "Process". Both are worth checking out.

(8/10)

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Here's Samantha performing "Gotta Tell You" on the British chart show Top Of The Pops...

Next up is the remix done by DJ Skribble and Anthony Acid that helped the track make the runner-up spot on the American dance chart...

In 2008, Samantha got together with DJ Micky Modelle for a nu-trance version of the song...

and finally, in concert in Manchester, England, using Modelle's mix as a backdrop...

Up tomorrow: This trio don't need no man. Except Charlie, perhaps.