Samantha Mumba said she is ‘gutted’ to not be able to make it to watch Erica Cody’s tribute to her on Dancing With The Stars tonight.
The Dublin singer, who is based in LA, is set to be honoured on the RTE series tonight in a special performance by singer Erica as part of ‘Dedicated Dance' week.
Speaking from the US, she gushed over her pride for fellow singer Erica, and said she’ll be cheering her on from afar.
She told the Irish Mirror: “I’m gutted to not be there to cheer her on, but I'll definitely be tuning in from over here.
“I’m so proud of her.”
Top scorer Erica, 26, told how Samantha was a childhood hero for her growing up, and told how she 'inspired' her to follow her music dream.
Set to dance a tango to Samantha’s hit Body II Body, she told the Irish Daily Mirror Sunday night’s dance in her honour will be a 'full circle moment'.
She said: "When I was growing up there wasn’t much representation when it came to women of colour or black women in general that I could see on TV that were doing things that I wanted to do.
“Singing and performing and you know being Grammy nominated and top of the charts in the UK and for her to have done all of that, I was such a huge fan.
“And when I was at such a young and impressionable age, she means a great deal to me so it was kind of inevitable that I would dedicate it to her. Because it is such a full circle moment for me,” she added.
Erica transformed into a Disney princess while dancing to When We’re Human from Princess and the Frog with her partner pro partner Denys Samson last week, a performance she hopes will pave the way for other kids like her growing up.
“The amount of messages I got after from parents and young kids just saying ‘you are that representation for us now and it means so much’.
“So I think it was only right, and it was kind of a no brainer to be honest when it came to a dedicated dance week.
“Because I wanted to dedicate it to somebody who inspired me to just go for it and show me that it is possible and there is room for everyone no matter who you are or what you come from.”
The LA based Irish singer won’t be in the Dublin studio on Sunday to watch the performance live, but Erica told how they shared a ‘lovely moment’ this week when she told her about her tribute.
“She’ll be watching,” she said.
“I got to tell her the other day, we had a really lovely moment. She will be watching but I don’t know if she will be here as I know she is based in the US at the moment.
“So unless she wants to fly in and surprise me,” she laughed.
'Dedicated Dance' week will see each dancer pay tribute to someone special in their lives through a special performance.
There is no elimination this week but the stakes are still high, as the celebrity who achieves the highest combined score, when the judges scores and the public vote are put together, will get a 'free pass' from the first dance-off next week.
And for Erica, who made history in her first dance, becoming the highest scoring week one dance in the Irish series ever, before going on to bag the first 10 this season, she has no shame in saying she is ‘in it to win it’.
"I am naturally very competitive. I have a big sporting background so naturally I am just competitive. But more so with myself because I always want to be the best I can be.
“So when it came to doing the show obviously I jumped on it in the middle of covid and everything was still locked down and I didn’t know when I would get to tour or release and so it was really uncertain.
“And I was like why would I not want to do it to win it.
“It is such an amazing experience it goes by so quickly, we wanted to make it through every single week and I'd be lying if I said I was doing it for the experience. I am doing it for the experience and also because I want to win.
“In a very humble way,” she quipped, before adding: “I think competition is healthy.”
“Anyone who says they aren’t in it to win it, I don’t really believe ya,” she added laughing.
