Early years
Nelly Furtado was born in Victoria, British Columbia to Portuguese immigrants from Azores, Maria Manuela and António Jose Furtado. She was named after Soviet gymnast Nellie Kim. Furtado first sang at the age of four when she performed a duet with her mother at a church on Portugal Day. 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.
The first musicians Furtado interacted with were underground rappers and DJs. At the end of the summer of 11th grade during a visit to Toronto, 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, the 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.[6] 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!
Whoa, Nelly! (2000)
Furtado continued to collaborate 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 a success all over the globe, 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."[7]
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.[8] Nevis is ethnically a quarter Filipino, a quarter Indian, and half Portuguese.[9]
2003-2005: Folklore
Folklore (2003)
Furtado's second album, Folklore, was released in November 2003. The title was influenced by her parents' emigration to Canada.[citation needed] 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.[10] 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[11] 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.[12]
2006 - 2007: 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.[13][14] 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 Busque" (featuring Juanes), and the pop single "Maneater". In this album, primarily produced by Timbaland, Furtado experiments with sounds from R&B, hip hop, and 80s music.[15] She categorized the album's sound as punk-hop, described as "modern, poppy, spooky" and as having "a mysterious, after-midnight vibe... extremely visceral".[13] She attributed the youthful sound of the album to the presence of her two-year old daughter.[15]
Loose became the most successful album of Furtado's career. It reached number-one in several countries including the United States and Canada, and it included the hit singles "Promiscuous", "Maneater", "Say It Right", and "All Good Things (Come to an End)". The album received generally positive reviews from critics,[16] with some citing the "revitalising" effect of Timbaland on Furtado's music,[17][18] and others calling it "slick, smart and surprising."[19] Some have labeled her a "sell out" for seemingly abandoning her folk and rock roots in favor of hip hop and R&B,[20] while others criticize her for having to "sex up" her music and appearance in order to sell more records.[21]
Furtado and Justin Timberlake are featured on Timbaland's single "Give It to Me".[22]Furtado also announced in December 2006 that she would be recording an all-Spanish album. As of April 2007, however, Furtado's plans have changed. While she still hopes to release a Latin album one day, the project has been put on hold. Instead, she will re-release "Loose" in the United States (and possibly Latin America) with Spanish versions of 'All Good Things (Come To An End)' 'Try' and 'In God's Hands' (all of which she wrote and recorded with Julio Reyes). No release date for the new version of "Loose" has been given.
In late November 2006, Furtado revealed that she once turned down US $500,000 to pose nude in Playboy.[23]
On December 31, 2006, Furtado sang at a concert alongside Indian singers at Andheri Sports Centre in Mumbai, India, sponsored by Nokia. She performed "Say It Right" and "Promiscuous" (with Saukrates) on the ABC soap opera One Life to Live on February 23, 2007. On February 16, 2007, Furtado embarked in Manchester on her Get Loose Tour.
On March 21, 2007, Furtado returned to her hometown of Victoria, British Columbia to perform a concert at the Save-On Foods Memorial Centre. In honour of her visit, local leaders officially proclaimed March 21, 2007 the first day of spring as Nelly Furtado Day.[24]
On April 1, 2007 Furtado hosted the Juno Awards in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, and won in all five categories she was nominated in.
Influences
During her teenage years, Furtado embraced many musical genres, listening heavily to mainstream R&B, hip hop, alternative rock, New Wave, alternative hip hop, trip hop, world music (including Portuguese fado, Brazilian bossa nova, and Indian music), and a variety of others. Her influences have included Jeff Buckley, Caetano Veloso, Esthero, Amalia Rodrigues, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Cornershop, TLC, Mary J. Blige, Mariah Carey, Digable Planets, De La Soul, Radiohead, Oasis, The Smashing Pumpkins, The Verve, U2, Enya and Beck.
Furtado's music has also been influenced by her current residence, Toronto, which she calls "the most multicultural city in the entire world" and a place where she "can be any culture".[9]
Toronto and experiencing musical diversity
Regarding Toronto's cultural diversity, she has said that she did not have to wait for the Internet revolution to learn about world music; she began listening to it at the age of fifteen and continues to discover new genres. On a 2006 Rolling Stone issue, she commented about her diverse taste:
“
I always know there's a new genre left to discover. For me, it's like a metaphor for life. I feel like if you can get down with any style of music, you can get down with any style of person. So it's fun for me—I get to expose my fans to different vibes and they, in turn, open their minds too. I'm always undergoing mind-opening.[9]
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Acting career
Furtado began acting in school plays in middle school. She appeared on the "Some Buried Bones" episode of CSI: NY as Ava Brandt, a master-thief and victim of domestic abuse. The episode also featured her songs "Maneater" and "All Good Things (Come to an End)". She also guest starred on an episode of the day time soap opera, One Life to Live where she performed some of her songs in a local club.
