In the summer of 2000, a 17-year-old Dublin girl appeared on her debut single that would redefine the view of Irish pop.

This sound is far from the voice of Enya's huge sale of Celtics. Cors' pop music - Irish tradition mashup; or sleek boy band contemporaries like Westlife and Ronan Keating, who had already had multiple British numbers that year.

Instead, Samantha Mumba's must tell you that this is a sleek, radio hit that climbed the international rankings, and it was about 25 years ago that introduced the Noughties music community to the confident and cool new sound.

It wasn't that woman herself who remembered it in this way.

"I'm a nasty little boy," she smiled. "I don't really think I know what I'm doing. I'm just waving it, hoping to do the best."

Wings are one way to illustrate it - Momba follows Gotta to tell you with more hits, including the body II sampled by Davide Bowie; debut albums that entered the top 10 in the UK and Ireland; and in Hollywood blockbusters, the role in the Time Machine with Guy Pierce.

This is a weather rise.

But the following years proved to be bruising education in the music industry, from the problem with record labels to the failed bids representing Ireland earlier this year.

It's not that Mumba is going to look back.

"This is a new chapter in what I do whatever I want to do," she said.

“I have a lot of motivation, I am a hardworking person and striving for challenges.”

Mumba's music journey was born in Dublin in 1983 and began when she was three years old, her parents recruited her for dance classes on the stage of Billie Barry.

Her key musical influence was held early on - Whitney Houston, Tony Braxton and her "obsessed" Michael Jackson.

"I used to write to him. I remember being sent a letter from the Neverland Ranch - until today, I've been destroyed and we're gone."

She attracted a lot of attention when she performed in her stage work until she was 15 years old.

"At that time, you really didn't see young black girls on stage in Dublin. I was still young and loud, so I started getting a lot of news. I was lucky in that."

The industry came soon, and she was invited to meet with the Spice Women's Producer, who later led her to future manager Louis Walsh.

Mumba, known for her success at Westlife and Boyzone, admitted that she was "absolutely a different project" for future judge X Factor.

After signing a deal with Polydor Records, Mumba began recording her debut with heavyweight producers like Dave Pensado, Teddy Riley and Stargate.

She has built a "big rapport" with Gotta behind her telling your team - and they're done right very quickly.

“When you do something special, you feel that I will never forget it…We are all like: ‘Oh God, no, wait, it’s really special.’

"To this day, I still stick to that song. I still feel it's ready to be released now."

The single was released in Ireland on June 2, 2000 and quickly shot the rankings, ranking fourth in the United States and cleared the top three in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.

She still remembers her surprise.

"Are you kidding me? I was shocked. I just couldn't get around it.

“I remember doing a lot of news in the bubble, but that didn’t really do the calculations for me, I was still a teenager.”

The cultural significance of her rise was not immediately registered with the newborn star.

Born in an interracial marriage, Mumba gave people something that they had rarely heard before - an Irish accent to a famous black girl.

At the time, the competition was "not a thing" for her, but now, at 42, she said it shocked her.

"When girls send me messages or I meet them, they say how important it is to meet me, they look like me...that means a lot," she said.

“I didn’t grow up because of the significance of race, obviously I am a black woman now, I have a black daughter, and I know very well how important the representation is, and how important that is.

“I’m grateful that I have to be anyone because I certainly didn’t have that growth.”

Mumba's debut album was released in October 2000, making her contemporaries like Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and Destiny's children.

After a series of successful singles, she set out to record the follow-up while also doing her best, such as her role in the Times Machine opposite Guy Pierce and her collaboration with Damian Marley.

But Mumba's sophomore album - Many - never saw the light of a day.

“When all the tags merged, I was kind of stuck in it,” she said.

“I was frozen and I couldn’t release it from my tags, but they weren’t going to release music at the time.

She smiled and said, “If I had to go back and do it again, I would only have better lawyers and a shrewd industry.”

Instead, Mumba was “prepared to be a normal girl” – she moved to Los Angeles and worked hard to “live a little and grow up.”

After returning to the stage in recent years, Mumba said she is trying to adapt to a very different industry.

The rise of social media and streaming has been an advantage, she said, “because it has taken a lot of power from the record label,” she added that she can now release music without expecting, contact people immediately and close any untrue rumors.

"I remember writing about me in the newspaper, and there was nothing I could do. Although (now) you can laugh immediately and make no sense."

Indeed, social media caught the attention when Mumba’s emoji post criticized Ireland’s European selection process for making headlines earlier this year.

Mumba was ranked second in my way, and he questioned some jury qualifying for European competitions.

In hindsight, will her reaction be different?

"I'm absolutely standing with 10 toes," she said.

“I’ve been asked over the years (competing in Eurosong) and I never thought I would consider going to compete.

"So it's very personal to me. Actually, it's actually about me pulling myself out of my comfort zone. My regret zero."

Apart from Eurovision's wishes, Mumba said she wanted to achieve "more things".

She has starred in the Irish mystery drama Harry Wild since 2023 and appeared on the Summer Festival bill in Mighty Hoopla this weekend in London.

Apparently, the audience still attracted Dubliners, and although she wanted to strike a balance, she longed for unreleased music from "Back to Day".

"I've been trying to shake, you know, 'Are people old things? Do they want new things?'"

For the moment, Muba said she is happy to ride the current wave of nostalgia.

She reflected: "It's a great time in our lives. Things have become simpler, easier, happier, and almost more innocent."

“I’m glad that people for 25 years are still streaming this song and then come and see me perform. That’s not lost at all.

"But yes, it certainly feels like a lifetime."