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Nelly Furtado Music Unlimited

2007-08-17

"If I expect this all to be there,like a next record,or whatever,then I’m pretty much screwed."-Nelly

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Furtado, on the hype surrounding her debut

Nelly Kim Furtado (born December 2, 1978) is a Canadian singer, songwriter, record producer, and instrumentalist of Portuguese descent.Furtado came to fame in 2000 with the release of her debut album Whoa, Nelly!, which featured her breakthrough Grammy Award-winning single "I’m Like a Bird". After becoming a mother and releasing the less commercially successful Folklore (2003), she returned to prominence in 2006 with the release of Loose and its hit singles "Promiscuous" ,"Maneater", "Say It Right", and "All Good Things (Come to an End)".Furtado is known for experimenting with different instruments, sounds, genres, languages, and vocal styles. This diversity has been influenced by her wide-ranging musical taste and her interest in different cultures.


Biography
Early years

Nelly Furtado was born in Victoria, British Columbia to Portuguese immigrants from the Azores, Maria Manuela and António José Furtado.She was named after Soviet gymnast Nellie Kim.Raised in a Roman Catholic home, Furtado first sang at the age of four when she performed a duet with her mother at a church on Portugal Day. Although remaining unclear about her religious beliefs, she still affirms a belief in God, the Ten Commandments, and in avoiding the Seven Sins.She began playing instruments at the age of nine, learning the trombone, ukulele and, in later years, the guitar and keyboard. At the age of twelve, she began writing songs,and as a teenager, she performed in a Portuguese marching band.Furtado has acknowledged her family as the source of her strong work ethic; she spent eight summers working as a chambermaid with her mother, who was a housekeeper in Victoria.She has stated that coming from a working class background has shaped her identity in a positive way.The first musicians Furtado interacted with were underground rappers and DJs.During a visit to Toronto the summer after eleventh grade, Furtado met Tallis Newkirk, member of the hip hop group, Crazy Cheese. She contributed vocals to their 1996 album, Join the Ranks, on the track "Waitin’ 4 the Streets".After graduating from Mount Douglas Secondary School in 1996, she moved to Toronto. The following year, she formed Nelstar, a trip hop duo with Newkirk. Ultimately, Furtado felt the trip-hop style of the duo was "too segregated" and believed it did not represent her personality or allow her to showcase her vocal ability.She left the group and planned to move back home.Before moving, however, she performed at the 1997 Honey Jam, an "all-female urban" talent show.Her performance attracted the attention of The Philosopher Kings singer Gerald Eaton (aka Jarvis Church), who then approached her to write with him. He and fellow Kings member Brian West helped Furtado produce a demo. She left Toronto, but returned again to record more material with Eaton and West. The material recorded during these sessions led to her 1999 record deal with DreamWorks Records.Furtado’s first single, "Party’s Just Begun (Again)", was released that year on the Brokedown Palace: Music from the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack.

2000–2002: Whoa, Nelly! and early success
Furtado continued the collaboration with Eaton and West, who co-produced her debut album, Whoa, Nelly!, released in October 2000. Following the release of the album, Furtado headlined the Burn in the Spotlight tour and also appeared on Moby’s Area:One tour.The album was an international success, supported by three international singles, "I’m Like a Bird", "Turn off the Light", and "…On the Radio (Remember the Days)". It received four Grammy nominations in 2002, and her debut single won for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. Furtado’s work was also critically acclaimed for her innovative mixture of various genres and sounds. Slant magazine called the album "a delightful and refreshing antidote to the army of ‘pop princesses’ and rap-metal bands that had taken over popular music at the turn of the millennium."

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Motherhood

On September 20, 2003 in Toronto, Furtado gave birth to a daughter, Nevis, whose father is DJ Jasper Gahunia. Furtado and Gahunia, who had been good friends for several years, remained together for four years until their breakup in 2005. Furtado told Blender magazine that they continue to be good friends and jointly share responsibility of raising Nevis. Nevis is ethnically a quarter Filipino, a quarter Asian Indian, and half Portuguese.

2003–2005: Folklore
Folklore (2003)
Folklore (album)
Furtado’s second album, Folklore, was released in November 2003. The title was influenced by her parents’ immigration to Canada. Folclore [fOlk’lOrI] means the same in Portuguese as it does in English, but occurs much more frequently, in any reference to traditional culture. The final track on the album, "Childhood Dreams", was dedicated to her daughter. The album includes the single "Força" (meaning "strength" or "carry on" in Portuguese), the official anthem of the 2004 European Football Championship. Furtado performed this song in Lisbon at the championship’s final, in which the Portugal national team played. Other singles included "Powerless (Say What You Want)" and the ballad "Try".
The album was not as successful as her debut, partly due to the album’s less "poppy" sound, but also due to changes at DreamWorks Records. DreamWorks had just been sold to Universal Music Group. In 2005, DreamWorks Records, along with many of its artists including Furtado, were absorbed into Geffen Records..

2006–Present: Loose
Loose (2006)
Furtado’s third album was released in June 2006. She named it Loose after the spontaneous, creative decisions she made while creating the album. Four lead singles were released in different regions of the world: the Spanish reggaeton-influenced "No Hay Igual" (featuring Calle 13), the hip-hop "Promiscuous" (featuring Timbaland) , for which she won a 2006 Billboard Music Award for Pop Single of the Year, the Latin "Te Busqué" (featuring Juanes), and the dark pop single "Maneater". In this album, primarily produced by Timbaland, Furtado experiments with sounds from R&B, hip hop, and 80s music. She categorized the album’s sound as punk-hop, described as "modern, poppy, spooky" and as having "a mysterious, after-midnight vibe… extremely visceral". She attributed the youthful sound of the album to the presence of her two-year old daughter. Loose has become the most successful album of Furtado’s career so far. It reached number-one in several countries including the United States and Canada, and it included the hit singles "Promiscuous", "Maneater", "Te Busqué", "Say It Right", and "All Good Things (Come to an End)". The album received generally positive reviews from critics, with some citing the "revitalising" effect of Timbaland on Furtado’s music, and others calling it "slick, smart and surprising." Some have labeled her a "sell out" for seemingly abandoning her folk and rock roots in favor of hip hop and R&B, while others have criticized her for attempting to "sex up" her music and appearance to sell more records.
In 2007, Furtado and Justin Timberlake were featured on Timbaland’s single "Give It To Me", became her third number-one single in the US and second in the UK. In late November 2006, Furtado revealed that she once turned down US $500,000 to pose nude in Playboy. On February 16, 2007, Furtado embarked on the Get Loose Tour. She returned in March 2007 to her hometown of Victoria, British Columbia to perform a concert at the Save-On Foods Memorial Centre. In honor of her visit, local leaders officially proclaimed March 21, 2007, the first day of spring, as Nelly Furtado Day. On April 1, 2007 Furtado was a performer at and host of the 2007 Juno Awards in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. She won all five awards for which she was nominated, including "Album of the Year" and "Single of the Year".

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