It all started with an aubergine emoji. Ok, it was a little more than that, but unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last week, you’ll have seen the purple vegetable popping up all over the place.
Of course, that’s thanks to the celebrity spat none of us knew we needed, between 1990s pop icon Samantha Mumba and one of Ireland’s favourite foodies, chef Donal Skehan. While the drama may have stemmed from the Late Late Show’s Eurosong special last Friday – on which Samantha was a contestant and Donal part of the judging panel, alongside dancer Arthur Gourounlian and 2FM radio presenter Laura Fox – its subsequent descent into parody has proved infinitely more entertaining than the show itself.
You could say it’s the gift that keeps on giving – and this generosity may indeed make sense, since it was our Samantha’s parting gift to her judging detractors that’s become the stuff of legend.
A little background
First, a little background. Dublin-born Samantha, 42 – who has lived in LA for decades having had huge success in the 2000s with her album Gotta Tell You – seems to have been dabbling with a musical comeback for a while now, releasing singles during lockdown and in 2023. So when she put her well-established name in the ring as an Irish Eurosong hopeful, it must have seemed like the perfect chance to unleash all that Mumba magic once more.
Last Friday, Samantha was competing against five relative unknowns – electropop singer Bobbi Arlo, Galway singer Reylta, Limerick artist NIYL, Donegal-born performer Adgy and the Norway-born singer Emmy. The latter subsequently won with her song Laika Party, about a Russian dog who went to space before humans – a ridiculous premise, but hey, it’s Eurovision, it’s not supposed to make sense.
In her pre-recorded video on that fateful Friday, Samantha was sanguine in her musical prowess, throwing in self-deprecating humour by referring to herself as ‘an artefact at this stage’. But that was where the joking stopped – you could tell that Samantha meant business. In fact, this wasn’t just about her career – her Eurosong choice was deeply personal.
My Way was, she explained, ‘about taking control of my life at this point, and everything I wanted to do’. Describing the crescendo of the song, she tellingly said: ‘It starts off very slow, and just gets bigger and bigger and bigger’ – not dissimilar to the social media frenzy that came a little later.
Samantha's feedback from the Eurosong panel
While Mumba looked every inch the superstar during her performance, the song itself seemed at best confusing, starting as a ballad and finishing as, well, I’m not sure what, but given the Irish dancing hook, possibly a Riverdance tribute. It was over to the judges and Laura Fox was first to tentatively give her feedback. ’Samantha Mumba is an icon in her own right,’ said Laura, looking a little starstruck.
‘I just think My Way was a little too slow to get there,’ she said carefully, seeming relieved to hand things over to Donal, who also went for a compliment sandwich. ‘I love that there was a dining table involved in that, of course,’ he said, in a not very subtle link back to his day job.
He referred to Samantha as a ‘phenomenal part of Irish history’ but bemoaned the fact that ‘you have a minute and 30 seconds before you get that big Samantha Mumba moment’.
Bambie Thug threw in their tuppence worth by stating that ‘a revamp’ could help My Way along its, well, way. But possibly the most unfiltered feedback of all came from Arthur Gourounlian, who spared no punches, describing the song as akin to ‘ten different demos, put in a pot, mixed together but no chemistry between the songs’. Ouch. ‘I couldn’t relate at all, I’m so sorry,’ he shrugged.
Samantha hits out at the panel
It was the calm before the storm. At the end of the night, the results came in, and it was Norwegian act Emmy who was chosen to fly the Irish flag in Basel, Switzerland in May. Samantha’s song scored 26 points from the national and international jury, but a mere two from a total of 26 from the voting public.
But that’s showbusiness, you dust yourself off and keep going – and Samantha very almost did just that, but not before doing what many others have done and lived to regret.
Fuelled with emotion, she took to social media. Although she was quick to emphasise that as a consummate creative, she was ok with the fact that others might not get her vision, her ensuing rant didn’t quite come across that way.
‘Those that got it, GOT IT… and those that didn’t, that’s ok too. It’s my art and I stand by it,’ she typed in a flurry on her Instagram stories. So far, so fair. But then Samantha added a ‘special mention’ to the judging panel, or in Samantha’s words – ‘a trio of bozos’ – highlighting the most scathing use of quote marks I’ve seen in a while, alongside of course, the now infamous and highly descriptive aubergine-based insult.
‘Special mention to the “panel” (aside from Bambie who I stan) who not only didn’t have the credentials, experience or professionalism required and were unnecessarily rude and vile to all the finalists – my parting gift them is a bag of [aubergine emoji] to slowly choke on,’ she raved.
For those who might be unaware, the aubergine emoji is often used to depict male genitalia in modern text parlance. ‘(Would have said this in person but they all left the green room before I had the opportunity to) unsurprisingly,’ she concluded.
Donal hits back
Perhaps they ran away in fear, but either way, Samantha’s fury sparked a social media furore as the country gaped in shock.
Of course, the story doesn’t end there. Donal has been getting great mileage out of the blow-up, cooking up quite the aubergine emoji feast on Instagram. While he’s clearly having fun with the fallout, his initial response calling out Samantha’s ‘unprofessionalism’ in her outburst – was a little more spicy.
‘I understand that Samantha’s response is personal and comes from a place of deep emotion, something that is entirely understandable in such a highstakes competition,’ he said the following day on Instagram.
‘Tearing others down is never a good look, especially when everyone involved has worked to make the process as fair and constructive as possible,’ he said, rejecting Samantha’s claim that the panel lacked the necessary credentials.
‘Each of us was chosen for our experience, insights and passion for Eurovision.’ In an ironic twist, the night before the show, Donal had posted a humorous video on his Instagram reminding people that he had also been a contestant on Eurosong in 2008 – when he was beaten by Dustin the Turkey.
‘Everyone says I came fifth, but actually I know I came second,’ he tells his disinterested family, before admitting that he ‘sang out of tune for most of it, but in fairness they didn’t give us proper rehearsals’. Donal continued to defend his own qualifications in his response to Samantha’s rant, saying: ‘It might be easy to write me off as just a TV chef, but my career began in music. I’ve had two number-one singles in Ireland with my band, Industry, supported acts like JLS and The Pussycat Dolls, and competed in Eurosong in 2008.
‘My comments were never personal. They were about what would give Ireland the best chance of success on the Eurovision stage.’
Samantha speaks out again
The next day a clearly calmer Samantha went back online, posting on Instagram: ‘Who would have thought a few aubergines would have caused such a scene?’ alongside a laughing emoji and that by now ubiquitous purple vegetable. She continued by saying she would spare followers ‘a pages long statement’ before once again decrying the ‘dismissive’ panel.
‘I really do want to make it clear – this was never ever about me not winning,’ she wrote. ‘That’s the nature of the business and this show’s format – I know that better than most. ‘I feel strongly that the panel were dismissive of all the contestants, which was disappointing given the amount of work and passion we all put into our performances. My stance on this won’t change.’
Hmm, the jury – or should that read Eurosong judges? – remain out on that one. Speaking of which, while Laura, Arthur and Bambie have not yet responded publicly to Aubergine-gate, they don’t really need to, given that Donal is all over it.
It's open season for the aubergine
It’s the season of the aubergine for Donal, who has included at least four recipes on Instagram with eggplant as the hero ingredient. From bozo memes to adding and tagging them on everything (including his bio) – Donal has even hooked his father’s birthday in on the act, alongside a family photo which captures a dog perilously close to his dad’s, em, vegetable emoji.
‘Been a busy couple of days, nearly forgot to post my dad’s annual birthday card picture and my favourite family photo! I’m sure you’ll all join me in wishing him a happy 71st birthday!’ he quipped, alongside several emojis – you know where I’m going with this.
Aubergines aside, the whole debacle seems to have sparked a nostalgia for Donal, who used Throwback Thursday as an opportunity to post a clip of him singing his heart out in an old music video from his Streetwize pop group days.
Who else is on the aubergine bandwagon?
Only adding to the entertainment are the hilarious takes from Irish celebrities. Laura’s colleague, 2FM’s Carl Mullan, posted a reel of him chomping on an aubergine in his car while ‘watching the Eurovision drama this week’, while Ireland’s sex guru Jenny Keane – whose online workshop Blow was credited with causing a national shortage of cucumbers during the pandemic – posted a very cheeky spin indeed.
‘I’m a cucumber girl myself, but if any of you want to learn how to slowly choke on a bag of aubergines as well, I have some tips for that,’ she said, before biting into a cucumber. In fairness, aubergines are not that tasty raw. Comedian Joanne McNally’s hot take was particularly popular.
Alongside a picture of her looking pensively into the distance, she wrote: ‘Taken to the bed to try and process the fact that Donal Skehan used to be in a pop group… and that Samantha Mumba is sending bags of d**ks to him... and that Donal is posting d**k recipes back to Samantha Mumba and then it’s back to Donal Skehan being in a pop group.
‘It’s the showbiz feud Ireland needs and deserves… Fingers crossed it gets to the high court. I’m holding space.’
Social media and TV star James Patrice chose to inspire patriotism in his riposte, by donning a green suit with a shamrock, and looking emotional as he held a framed picture. As the camera zooms in we can see it’s a scroll of Samantha’s initial Eurosong comments, with a image of her and Donal at the end, separated by – you’ve guessed it – an aubergine.
From ‘cackling’ over Joanne’s reel to reposting all the celebrity takes, Samantha appears to be enjoying all the banter too. But the whole debacle does lead me to wonder what else went on in green room that fateful night.
The other Eurosong entries speak out
On Thursday, fellow contestant Reylta backed up Samantha’s claims of the jury being dismissive.
‘I agree with her standing up… The dampener on the whole [Eurosong experience] was the panel,’ she told EVOKE. ‘They left quite a bad taste in the green room and let a lot of us down and ruined a lot of people’s experiences. Samantha is the only one with the courage to speak up and talk about something that we all agree with her on.
‘It was very clear they had their own favourites… anything that didn’t stick into their own agendas was not worthy of any good comments, I feel.’ The plot thickens. But at this stage those are minor details. We’ve all gotten a taste for aubergine – and it doesn’t look like we’ll have had our fill any time soon…
