Tuning into musical opportunity

Samantha Mulvihill’s song “Strikes Tonight” hits iTunes

Proving the power of social media, all it took was for 17-year-old Samantha Mulvihill to begin posting videos of herself singing on Instagram for a DJ 1,900 miles away to take notice. Now, after direct messages, followed by months of email exchange and recordings, her first single, “Strikes Tonight,” has hit iTunes, Google Music and Amazon Music.

While her musical debut has been a year in the making, Mulvihill’s love of singing and dancing stems back to her childhood when she would perform for her grandmother. Yet after her grandmother’s passing three years ago, Mulvihill once again began recreationally singing alone in her room.

“I didn’t tell my parents I had started singing again, but when my mom heard me she suggested I start taking it more seriously,” Mulvihill, who is a resident of 18th Street and Oregon Avenue, said. “I’m serious about going to school and my education though, and I really just wanted to sing for fun.”

Keeping her own enjoyment as the sole focus of her singing, Mulvihill decided to simply create her own singing account on Instagram, which she named @SammiRose_sings22, as Sami Rose is her stage name. Upon establishing her platform, she would record 30-second video clips of her singing covers, including songs by Jessi J, We The Kings, Justin Bieber, One Direction and more.

“I would use a lot of hashtags on my videos, and one day DJ SNCN direct messaged me asking me if I would write lyrics and perform a song based on a personal experience for one of his tracks,” Mulvihill said. “We discussed that it would be a very simple verse and a chorus, and how it would be best to record it.”

DJ SNCN, whose real name is Luis Fernando Sancén Garcia, asked her to use a soundproof room to record her song so that he could then put her voice to the beat of his track. Although at first Mulvihill had difficulty finding a suitable recording space, eventually her mother’s friend’s husband, Darren Lucis, a member of the local band Midnight Hour, offered to let her use a small recording studio in his basement.

Once she had the space needed to record her song, she had no problems completing the vocals for the track. Through her lyrics, Mulvihill chose to express the time in her life when she was attending St. Monica School, 2500 S. 16th St., where her mother was a teacher and her father served as the athletic director.

“I felt like I had to live in the shadows because of how people would treat me differently because my parents worked for the school,” Mulvihill said. “People would act like I got all the opportunities because they were there, when really sometimes it was the opposite.”

Focused on her transition to Ss. Neumann-Goretti Catholic High School, her song “Strikes Tonight,” therefore exposes her feelings of regained opportunity which arose from changing schools. Here, she said she felt as though she was no longer being pushed down because of her name, and that the opportunities at-hand became endless as she was able to in a sense “strike” back.

Released first on Apple Music on Friday, July 28, Mulvihill says that she feels so proud of her work and has since seen her song come to trend at the No. 2 spot on DJ SNCN’s Spotify account. Additionally, she has had multiple friends and family members go on to purchase her song from the various platforms it is now available on, adding to her feelings of success.

“My grandmother always loved to see me sing, and I know she played a part in helping me gain this opportunity,” Mulvihill said. “It feels amazing to have had the opportunity to record this song, and I’ve been on cloud nine since it came out.”

While Mulvihill hasn’t decided to fully dedicate herself to the music business just yet, she remains hopeful that through her motivation and hard work additional singing opportunities will arise. If not, the incoming senior at Neumann-Goretti says she plans to continue striving for greatness in the classroom, and exploring colleges (including Temple and Widener universities) with the potential to later possibly pursue a career in medicine.

“I hope to have many opportunities in the future, and I could definitely see myself doing something with music,” Mulvihill said. “I just want to see where this all goes, and until then, I just love hearing my friends and family put my song on.”

To listen to or purchase DJ SNCN’s song, “Strikes Tonight” (featuring Sami Rose), visit: https://goo.gl/NbUZGP.