Pacific Dawn passengers 'turn their chairs' for Melanesian princess from the Voice


Monday, May 19, 2014

A bright future in show business can await The Voice Australia contestants even if the celebrity judges don’t necessarily turn at the blind auditions.

Just ask Melanesian princess, Samantha Clark, who couldn’t coax the celebrity judges’ chairs but made a big impression on Pacific Dawn’s guests.

And the warm welcome on Dawn’s cruise to Papua New Guinea, including Samantha’s home island of Kiriwina, has spurred her on to cut her first album.

The 22-year-old singer was invited to sail as a guest entertainer on Pacific Dawn after being ‘discovered’ by a P&O Cruises advance party that visited Kiriwina to prepare for our PNG cruises.

Samantha’s first guest appearance onboard Dawn was so well received she will sail to PNG again in August.

“It was one of the most amazing times I have ever had with so many lovely people onboard the ship,” Samantha said of her first opportunity to entertain our guests.

“I had a great response from the passengers and many asked me if I had a CD. Their encouragement gave me the motivation to keep going and to put an album together so I have been writing some songs and working on some ‘covers’ to record.”

Samantha is a princess in the Trobriand Islands’ matrilineal society where birthright and tribal influence flows from the mother’s side.

“In our clan everything is taken from our mother’s side,” Samantha said. “My grandfather is a very well known chief on Kiriwina Island and that means my mother is a traditional royal princess -- but it’s nothing like the British Royal Family.”