WELL, what had you achieved when you were 24 years of age? Had you had a couple of chart-topping singles? Had you broken the US market? Had you been in a Spielberg film? Had you been nominated for a Grammy? Samantha Mumba, now regarded as 'all washed up', has done all of these things.

The entertainment industry collects teenage talents like fireflies, keeping them in captivity for the short duration of their shelf life. And then it does not so much release them as lose interest in them, releasing them into an adult reality that they have never known, where they flop about, exhausted after years of hard work and waiting, waiting, waiting.

There is a nasty tone to the publicity surrounding the cancellation of Samantha Mumba's concert at Dublin's Vicar Street. By her own account, she was advised to cancel it by her own management, including the promoter Harvey Goldsmith, who withdrew their backing for the gig some time ago. But Samantha pressed ahead with her plans independently. Last week, the concert was pulled, due to poor ticket sales.

On Thursday night, Samantha performed a showcase gig, for record company executives, at the Pigalle Club in London. She is looking for a new recording contract. Later this month, she will play in Belfast, Donegal and Limerick. In Limerick, in contrast to those in her native city, her ticket sales are reported to be brisk.

Seven years ago, Mumba had the pop world at her feet, and Louis Walsh by her side. She was a teen sensation. At that time, Walsh told an interviewer:

"She's an amazing dancer, does all her own image and she's no problem at all - yet."

Those of us who met Mumba during that period were bowled over by her focus and sense of purpose. She was pleasant, professional and extremely confident without being either cocky or neurotic. Like all of Louis Walsh's proteges, she was distinguished from run-of-the-mill teen sensations by her work ethic.

Tall, beautiful, funky, even Walsh admitted that Samantha Mumba was less manufactured than his other charges, eg, Westlife and, before that, Boyzone.

Indeed, Mumba had a lot to offer. She wrote seven of the tracks on her debut album, which was released in 2000. In the US, they thought that she sounded so American that they called her 'TLC's little sister'. Her years in the Billie Barry showbiz school meant that she had a professional way on stage. The first album Gotta Tell You has sold four million copies to date. It stayed in the US Billboard Hot 100 for six months, and went platinum.

Her penetration of the notoriously difficult US market was rapid. She has said herself that they didn't know what to make of a black girl from Dublin, but they certainly noticed her. In 2002, she was voted the 85th sexiest girl in the world by readers of the US edition of FHM. She was a star. In Ireland, her meteoric rise seemed extraordinary. We were delighted with her.

In these circumstances, it must have seemed like good sense to drop out of school at 17. With such an assured start behind her, and such a richly promising career in front of her, school must have appeared to be an unnecessary glitch in her schedule.

Despite the fact that she is now only 24, Samantha Mumba grew up in a different Dublin. At her school, Holy Faith Convent in Glasnevin, she was the only black student. She has commented that she did not find this difficult and that being black in Dublin at that time was tougher for her younger brother, the implication being that racism hits black boys much harder than it hits black girls.

At the height of her success, her father Peter, who had fallen on hard times, attempted a reconciliation with her, but this seems to have come to nothing. She now lives in Los Angeles with her mother and brother Omero, who has moved on from his brief acting career to writing scripts. Omero, now on his second career, is still only 17. Presumably, like many a teenage star before her, Samantha is the main breadwinner for her little family.

Her arrival in Hollywood was much more auspicious than her brother's. She went there to star in the Steven Spielbergproduced remake of HG Wells's The Time Machine. Mumba played the character Mara. She was soon walking up the red carpet at the Spider-Man premier wearing a spider-web dress punctuated by diamonds and said to be worth millions of dollars. In recent years, her acting career has fared better than her music. She starred in the 2005 Irish film Boy Eats Girl, but the film failed to prosper outside Ireland. She has made three films since.

Her recording career has been much more troubled. She was just 15 when she was discovered. Louis Walsh signed her to Polydor. "I thought that my record company had my best interests at heart, but they didn't, " she said recently.

On The Late Late Show last month, she told Pat Kenny that there had never been a second album. The rumour had been that the album, entitled Woman, had been cancelled. But now she says it was merely a collection of tracks that were leaked on to the web, and that the forthcoming album is really her second.

In the meantime, she has modelled for the Irish designer Louise Kennedy and for the Per Amore lingerie range stocked by Dunnes Stores. During the Per Amore campaign, she had to defend herself, because she had put on a little weight.

But she managed this well, saying that it made her feel more womanly. Of course, in the way of these things, she had to lose the weight again really quick. Her appearance on The Late Late Show demonstrated how beautiful she is. In a black cocktail dress, she looked like a Tamla Motown princess.

What Samantha Mumba does now is anyone's guess. She could cling to showbusiness and rebuild her career. A Channel 4 camera crew has been following her for the past six months, for a reality show to be broadcast later this spring. This, combined with her courting of the record industry, makes it look like she still wants to be considered a player. She may want to consider the cost to former teenage sensations of continuing their success into adulthood. The fabulously talented and troubled Robbie Williams, who was in Take That as a teenager and is now a megastar, is a case in point.

But there is an alternative. Samantha Mumba is young enough to abandon showbusiness entirely, and move on to something else. Many young models and actresses re-enter education at this age, having spent their early youth working hard in an industry which has little regard for them.

C.V.

Name: Samantha Tamania Anne Cecilia Mumba
Born: 18 January 1983, Dublin
Family: Father Peter Mumba, Zambian aircraft maintenance engineer. Mother Barbara Mumba, air hostess. One brother, Omero, six years younger.
Profession: singer, actress, model In the news because: her comeback concert in Dublin has been cancelled.