It’s been quite a busy month for , with the pop star coming second on this year’s season of and preparing to release her new EP later this week. While she’s been a fixture in Australian pop culture since winning in 2012, the singer-songwriter admits that she recently considered stepping away from the spotlight. Following the on Monday night, Samantha told that she went into the reality show lacking confidence in not only herself as a dancer but also as an artist.
In fact, she says she contemplated giving up music altogether before joining the competition. “I feel like as artists we go through these ups and downs. The highs are extremely high sometimes, the lows are extremely low, and I do experience anxiety and I feel like it's not always great,” she details.
“It’s obviously the highlight reel on Instagram and Facebook, and I do like to keep it that way because for me it’s a profile and it's my job, but there are moments where I sit at home and think, ‘Should I even do this anymore? Why am I bothering?’. “To be fully transparent, there are a lot of times when I am a bit of a mess and don't believe in myself. And then it takes my people to get around me and really build me back up to even go into the studio because I’m like, ‘No one will care if I put something out’.
You lose confidence and it sometimes gets low.” Samantha reveals that she received the call to appear on the show late last year while she was doing “Christmas corporate gigs”, and after she finally said ‘yes’. “I was like, ‘Why not? I'm gonna do it’.
Then come the day, the day before, it's like the first day of school vibes. You’re so nervous, you pack your little lunch box and get ready to go,” she laughs. "And from that day forward, I have to say, my confidence very slowly started coming back, and by the time I left the show, I felt like myself again.
So I will be forever grateful for this show for bringing back my belief in me...
It really did change me for the better.” Following her experience on , Samantha teases that she’s keen to expand her artistic abilities and take on some new opportunities. While she’s dabbled in acting in the past with a brief stint on and a supporting role in the miniseries as Kylie Minogue, the triple threat says the dancing competition gave her the confidence to dive back into that world.
“What I was shocked about is that dancing is so much about acting. I didn't ever take that into consideration. This was like taking on a role every week,” she remarks.
“I would love to do more acting. I really love acting. It's a whole other world, but I really love it.
I got the bug, I definitely did.” “I’ve always had this little dream of playing Roxie Hart [in ] or Sandy in . I never thought I could do it, I would go to musicals and be like ‘There is absolutely no way’.
They’re singing this whole time, they’re doing all this dancing, no way. And now I’m like, after , maybe I can?”.
