Singer Samantha Munba has said that she felt like a "product" during her years as a teen pop star but added that she has no regrets about pursuing her dreams of music stardom at such a young age.
Speaking on Friday's Late Late Show about her early experiences in the music business in the early 2000s, she said, "I was a young girl who was very, very ambitious, very headstrong, completely clueless and in a way that was kind of a good thing. Things I know now compared to what I knew then are very, very different.
The 38-year-old singer, who will be back on television soon as a judge on new RTÉ Saturday night show Last Singer Standing, added, "It’s not a nice industry, it’s not a great industry to be in.
"it’s a business and when you’re signed you just become a product and you’re just on that production line. At the time, as a young girl I didn’t realise that, but it was better than being in a cold classroom in school."
She also said that her aunt, Christina who worked as her tour manager, kept her safe and sane during her pop career.
"I was very, very lucky. I was 15 and I was away from home for months at a time and one of my biggest saving graces was my aunt, Christina," Mumba said.
"She was my tour manager for years and we had a ball on the road, and I think just having someone who genuinely had my back over the record label and anyone else was great. Minder, manager, bestie. She really took care of me and that made a huge difference."
She added, "It wasn’t normal to leave school at 16 to pursue being a pop star but it was a really, really good situation. I had a publishing deal and a record deal on the table so I’m grateful that my mam and dad let me do it. I have no regrets."
Asked by host Ryan Tubridy about Britney Spears’ struggles to free herself from her father’s conservatorship, Mumba said, "It’s heart breaking. She’s a beautiful girl. I’ve met her several times, she is lovely. She is what you think she is, just a lovely girl and I still don’t know how that even happened and you’d think her closest family members would be the last people to take advantage.
"But look, I don’t know the full story. I haven’t watched the documentary yet. It’s horrific but it seems like the tables are turning."
Dubliner Mumba scored a global hit in 2000 with I Gotta Tell You and also pursued an acting career, making her film debut in the 2002 film The Time Machine with Guy Pearce, as well as appearing in a number of Irish independent films.
She made her pop comeback earlier this year with new singles, Cool and Process.
The singer has been living in LA with her six-year-old daughter Sage and husband Torray Scales for a number of years and she revealed that she took Sage on a protest over the death of George Floyd in May of last year.
"I live in America and the Black Lives Matter protesting has been such a big deal and it’s a big deal here too and I was so proud as an Irish person to see the protesting in Ireland," she said.
"What happened to George Floyd was horrendous and disgraceful and in LA at the time that was all you could see on the news.
"Sage was just fascinated by it and we’d be driving around and she’d see these protests and wanted to be involved but I wasn’t comfortable with bringing her to a full-on protest but there was a kids’ one that was arranged in a park and it was gorgeous, and she got to march around this park with kids her age and she felt great about it.
"I thought, look, we’re black, we live in America and I think when she grows up she can look back and see that she was involved."
