Samantha Mumba doubles down on THAT Eurosong post
Samantha Mumba has addressed the Instagram post where she gave her thoughts on the Eurosong judges.
Samantha, whose hits include Gotta Tell You and I’m Right Here, was one of the five finalists looking to represent Ireland at last year’s Eurovision Song Contest.
While the country ended up choosing EMMY’s Laika Party as the song to represent us in Basel, Samantha had a few choice words for the selection contest’s judges Donal Skehan, Laura Fox and Arthur Gourounlian.
Samantha Mumba has addressed the Instagram post where she gave her thoughts on the Eurosong judges. Pic: Andres Poveda
In a post on social media following the selection contest, Samantha infamously called Laura, Donal and Arthur ‘bozos’ and instructed them to ‘eat a bag of [aubergine emojis].’
And while the trio took the insult in stride, Samantha never really spoke about the now infamous rant again… until earlier this week, when she said that she was just standing up for herself.
‘I was kind of like: “do you know what? No. I’m an adult,”‘ Samantha told Kathryn Thomas on the Are We There Yet podcast. ‘I have opinions, and I’m absolutely not afraid [to say them].’
Samantha entered the Eurosong contest last February, and despite not being picked, went on a rant against three of the judges in Laura Fox, Arthur Gourounlian and Donal Skehan, calling them bozos who should ‘eat a bag of aubergines.’ Pic: Andres Poveda
‘I’m supposed to be the good girl, and not say anything, and anything could be said to me, but God forbid I actually stand up for myself.
‘The audacity [of the judges]. Absolutely, I’m going to stand up for myself,’ she continued. ‘I’m raising a daughter: I’m not raising a daughter to be treated any way, or spoken to any way — I’m raising a strong, young, black woman and she’s phenomenal.
‘I really have to stand by how I feel. It’s one thing being myself and saying my thoughts and opinions privately, but if things are going to be said about me, and to me, publicly and on television, absolutely I’m going to stand up for myself and on my own platform.’
Donal immediately responded to the post from Samantha by sharing a selfie calling himself a Bozo with the aubergines in the O’s, and even changed his name on Instagram to include the aforementioned vegetable — but that part came back to bite him, as he was unable to change it back for quite a while.
‘I’ve had an aubergine emoji next to my name for the last month and a half, and we have tried everything to get rid of it,’ Donal explained on he and Arthur’s first episode of their Let’s Do This podcast back in April. ‘So Instagram or Facebook, if you’re listening, please remove the emoji.’
‘I didn’t realise you can’t change it,’ Arthur said. ‘Surely it’s been 30 days,’ to which Donal responded ‘exactly! The 30 days are up and it hasn’t changed!’
Donal ended up reaching the final stage of grief — acceptance — fairly quickly after the revelation, joking ‘what started as a joke is now something I live with permanently. I don’t think I’ll ever change it. I think it’s here to stay.’
