Nelly Furtado is a Canadian author / composer / performer.
Nelly Furtado was born on December 2, 1980 in Victoria (capital of British Columbia in Canada) to Portuguese parents. Nelly Furtado’s parents named her “Nelly” after Russian gymnastics champion Nellie Kim, who won 5 gold medals (3 in 1976 and 2 in 1980) and 1 silver (in 1976) at the Olympics.
Nelly Furtado learned to play the trombone, guitar and ukulele at age 9 and synthesizer at 11. Passionate about music since she was little, Nelly Furtado already knows at 4 that she wants to become a singer. Nelly Furtado sang with her mother in the choir, especially during Portugal’s national day. Nelly Furtado is fluent in Portuguese, English, Hindi, and Spanish.
As a teenager, Nelly Furtado begins to write songs and belongs to a music band. During this period, Nelly Furtado listens to R&B, hip hop, alternative rock, alternative hip hop, trip hop, fado, bossa nova, and Indian music. Artists that Nelly Furtado likes (and influenced) are Jeff Buckley, Caetano Veloso, Amalia Rodrigues, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Cornershop, Mariah Carey, TLC, Mary J. Blige, Digable Planets, De La Soul, Radiohead, Oasis, The Smashing Pumpkins, The Verve, U2 and Beck.
Nelly Furtado is grateful to her parents for teaching her hard work and ethics. In fact, Nelly Furtado has spent 8 summers working as a waitress with her mother. Nelly Furtado declares that coming from this background has contributed positively to forging her personality.
During a visit to Toronto last summer, Nelly Furtado met Tallis Newkirk, a member of the hip hop band “Plains of Fascination” and they contributed to her 1996 album “Join the Ranks” under the title “Waitin ‘4 The Streets “. After completing her studies at Mount Douglas Secondary School in 1996, Nelly Furtado left for Toronto, where she finally formed the duo / group Nelstar in 1997 with Newkirk. The experience has brought her back to her influences and allowed her to have more confidence in writing her melodies and rhymes. Despite the fact that “Like”, one of Nelstar’s songs, received a grant from VideoFACT to cover the production of the clip, Nelly Furtado felt that the duo did not reflect their personality and did not allow them to demonstrate their vocal skills. That is why Nelly Furtado leaves the music band with the idea of returning to Victoria.
Before leaving, Nelly Furtado decides to participate in a contest (very famous at the time), the “Honey Jam” that takes place at Lee’s Palace, a nightclub. Impressed by her performance, lead singer Gerald Eaton (aka Jarvis Church) of the band (The Philosopher Kings) offers Nelly Furtado a collaboration. It is a sample with the participation of another member of The Philosoper Kings, Brian West. But Nelly Furtado is going to travel to Europe and she wanted to go to university to take writing courses. Finally, Nelly Furtado returns to work with them and signs a contract in 1999 with DreamWorks Records.
Nelly Furtado continues to work with Eaton and West, who co-produce her album, “Whoa, Nelly!” (…. On The Radio (Remember The Days), Girl, Hey Man !, I’ll Make You Cry, I’m Like A Bird, Legend, My Love Deepens Part 1, Party, Fear You, Trynna Finda Way, Turn Off The Light, Well, Well), released in October 2000. The success comes from the singles I’m Like A Bird, Turn Off The Light and … On The Radio (Remember The Days). Nelly Furtado’s album was nominated 4 times for the Grammy Awards in 2002. But Nelly Furtado only received the award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for “I’m Like A Bird,” her first single. Additionally, Nelly Furtado has received rave reviews for her innovative mix of various styles with different sounds. Then Nelly Furtado did a tour called “Burn in the Spotlight” and also Moby’s “Area: One”.
The second album, “Folklore” (Build You Up, Childhood Dreams, Explode, Forca, Fresh Off the Boat, Island of Wonder, One-Trick Pony, Picture Perfect, Powerless (Say What You Want), Saturdays, The Grass Is Green , Try), is released in November 2003. The album shows more diverse sounds, a more rock approach, an acoustic approach. As Nelly Furtado concentrated more on writing, the BBC estimated that there was twice the originality of her first album. Nelly Furtado has attributed the maturity of her album to the fact that she was pregnant for most of the recording time.
His title Força (which means courage and strength in Portuguese) that is on his album Folkore was used for the European Football Championship in 2004 that took place in Portugal, in Lisbon. Força was sung during the final. However, Dreamworks Records is sold to Universal Music during the release of Nelly Furtado’s album and that is why there was not much promotion. In 2005, Nelly Furtado is taken over by Geffen Records because Dreamworks definitely closes.
Nelly Furtado is due to appear in an independent film about the Iraq war soon. The movie is called Nobody’s Hero. But Nelly Furtado also prepared “Loose” at the same time as the shoot. Nelly Furtado also tried to make a film in Hindi but was unsuccessful.
Nelly Furtado has just released “Loose” (Fear, All Good Things (Come to an End), Do It, Glow, In God’s Hands, Maneater, No Hay Igual, Promiscuous, Say It Right, Showtime, Te Busque, Te Busque (Spanish Version), Wait For You) in June 2006. Nelly Furtado’s first single is “Maneater” for Europe and Promiscuous (feat. Timbaland) in America. Anyone needs to know that there are different versions of this album depending on the countries. Chris Martin, leader of the group Coldplay, was going to make an appearance in the song “All good things (come and end)”, but did not succeed, which the singer has regretted. Nelly Furtado has also collaborated with Juanes on his song “Te Busque”, which we can also find in a Spanish version. Nelly Furtado already made a duet with him in the title “Fotografia” from the album “Un día normal” by the Colombian singer.
“Loose” is Nelly Furtado’s album, the most successful of her career, reaching # 1 in several countries, including the United States and Canada. Singles “Promiscuous” and “Maneater” also rank # 1 in the US, Canada and the UK.
According to rumors, Nelly Furtado’s next single should be “Say It Right”.
Nelly Furtado has had a son, just before “Folklore”, whose name is Nevis (born September 20, 2003 in Toronto, Canada).
The father is her ex-boyfriend, DJ and producer Jasper Gahunia aka Lil’Jaz. Nelly Furtado and Gahunia, who separated in 2005, were together for 4 years and were friends for many years before. Nelly Furtado wanted to get up on Nevis in Toronto because of the city’s cultural diversity, open-mindedness, and political activism.
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