Nelly Furtado

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Biography

Nelly Kim Furtado is a Canadian singer-songwriter, record producer and actress. Furtado grew up in Victoria, British Columbia , Canada.

Furtado first gained fame with her debut album, Whoa, Nelly! , and its single " I'm Like a Bird ", which won a 2001 Juno Award for Juno Award for Single of the Year|Single of the Year and a 2002 Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance . It produced two more international singles: the more successful " Turn off the Light ", and " Shit on the Radio (Remember the Days) ". After giving birth to her daughter Nevis, her second studio album, Folklore (Nelly Furtado album)|Folklore , was released. It was less commercially successful in the US. It produced three international singles: " Powerless (Say What You Want) ", " Try (Nelly Furtado song)|Try ", and " Força " (the theme of the UEFA Euro 2004|2004 European Football Championship ).

In summer 2006, she released her third studio album, Loose (Nelly Furtado album)|Loose . It is her biggest success to date worldwide. It produced the number-one hits " Promiscuous (song)|Promiscuous ", " Maneater (Nelly Furtado song)|Maneater ", " Say It Right " and " All Good Things (Come to an End) ". After a three-year break, in September 2009, she released her first full-length Spanish album, Mi Plan , along with her first Spanish single " Manos al Aire ", which topped the Billboard Hot Latin Songs. This made Furtado the first North American singer to top the Billboard Hot Latin Chart with an original Spanish song. Further singles released were " Más (Nelly Furtado song)|Más " and " Bajo Otra Luz ". For Mi Plan , Nelly received the Latin Grammy for Best Female Pop Vocal Album. On October 26, a remix album, Mi Plan Remixes , was released. Furtado released her first greatest hits album, The Best of Nelly Furtado , one month later on November 12, 2010. A new album, T.S.I. , is scheduled for a summer 2012 release.

Early life

Furtado was born on December 2, 1978, in Victoria, British Columbia , to Portuguese people|Portuguese parents, Maria Manuela and António José Furtado, both immigrants from the Azores . at DailyMusicGuide.com She was named after Soviet gymnast Nellie Kim . Her parents were born on São Miguel Island and emigrated to Canada in the late 1960s. Her siblings are Michael Anthony and Lisa Anne. She was raised in a Roman Catholic home.

At age four, she began performing and singing in Portuguese. Furtado's first public performance was when she sang a duet with her mother at a church on Portugal Day . She began playing musical instruments at the age of nine, learning the trombone , ukulele and – in later years – the guitar and keyboards. At the age of 12, 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, along with her brother and sister, who was a housekeeper in Victoria. She has stated that coming from a working class background has shaped her identity in a positive way.

Music career

1996–99: Musical beginnings

During a visit with her sister Lisa Anne in Toronto, the summer after eleventh grade, Furtado met Tallis Newkirk, member of the hip hop group Plains of Fascination. 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 to reside with her sister Lisa Anne. 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.

In 1997, she performed at the Honey Jam talent show. Her performance attracted the attention of The Philosopher Kings singer Gerald Eaton , who then approached her to write with him. He and fellow Kings member Brian West (musician)|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 , where she was signed by A& R executive Beth Halper, partner of Garbage (band)|Garbage drummer and record producer Butch Vig . Furtado's first single, " Party's Just Begun (Again) ", was released that year on the Brokedown Palace: Music from the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack .

2000–05: Whoa, Nelly! and Folklore

Furtado continued the collaboration with Eaton and West, who co-produced her debut album, Whoa, Nelly! , which was 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 Festival|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 Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance|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".
The sound of the album was strongly influenced by musicians who had traversed cultures and "the challenge of making heartfelt, emotional music that's upbeat and hopeful". According to ''Maclean's magazine, Whoa, Nelly!'' had sold six million copies worldwide as of August 2006.Intini, John. . '' Maclean's ''. August 25, 2006. Retrieved September 18, 2006. Portions of the song "Scared of You" are in Portuguese, while "Onde Estás" is entirely in Portuguese, reflecting Furtado's Portuguese heritage. The International Release of "Whoa Nelly" featured fellow Canadian Esthero on the song titled "I Feel You".

In 2002, Furtado appeared on the song "Thin Line", on underground hip hop group Jurassic 5 's album Power in Numbers . The same year, Furtado provided her vocals to the Paul Oakenfold's song "The Harder They Come" from the album Bunkka and also made the song "These words are my own". She also had a collaboration with Colombian artist Juanes , in the song "Fotografia" where she showed her diversity of yet another language. Furtado was also featured in "Breathe" from Swollen Members "Monsters in the Closet" release; the video for "Breathe," directed by Spawn (comics)|Spawn creator Todd MacFarlane , won the 2003 Western Canadian Music Awards Outstanding Video and MuchVIBE Best Rap Video.

Furtado's second album, Folklore (Nelly Furtado album)|Folklore , was released in November 2003. The final track on the album, "Childhood Dreams", was dedicated to her daughter, Nevis. The album includes the single " Força " (meaning "strength"/ "power" or "you can do it!" 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.
The lead single is " Powerless (Say What You Want) " and the second single is the ballad " Try (Nelly Furtado song)|Try ". The album was not as successful as her debut, partly due to the album's less "poppy" sound, as well as underpromotion from her label DreamWorks Records. DreamWorks had just been sold to Universal Music Group . In 2005, DreamWorks Records, along with many of its artists including Furtado, was absorbed into Geffen Records .
"Powerless (Say What You Want)" was later remixed, featuring Colombian rocker Juanes , who had previously worked with Furtado on his track " Fotografía " ("Photograph"). The two would collaborate again on " Te Busqué " ("I searched for you"), a single from Furtado's 2006 album Loose .

2006–08: Loose

Furtado's third album, named Loose (Nelly Furtado album)|Loose , after the spontaneous, creative decisions she made while creating the album, was released in June 2006. In this album, primarily produced by Timbaland , Furtado experiments with sounds from R& B, hip hop, and 1980s music. Furtado herself describes 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. 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 " sellout " for seemingly abandoning her folk and rock roots in favour of hip hop and R& B, while others have accused her of attempting to "sex up" her music and appearance to sell more records.

Loose has become the most successful album of Furtado's career so far, as it reached number one, not only in Canada and the United States, but also several countries worldwide. The album produced her first number-one hit in the United States, " Promiscuous (song)|Promiscuous ", as well as her first number-one hit in the United Kingdom, " Maneater (Nelly Furtado song)|Maneater ". The single " Say It Right " eventually became Furtado's most successful song worldwide, due to its huge success in Europe and in the United States, where it became her second number-one hit. " All Good Things (Come to an End) " became her most successful song in Europe, topping single charts in numerous countries there.

On February 16, 2007, Furtado embarked on the "Get Loose Tour". She returned in March 2007 to her hometown of Victoria 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. After the tour, she released her first live DVD/CD named Loose the Concert . Amazon.de The DVD: Track listing On April 1, 2007, Furtado was a performer and host of the Juno Awards of 2007|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. She also appeared on stage at the Concert for Diana at Wembley Stadium in London on July 1, 2007, where she performed "Say It Right", "Maneater", and " I'm like a Bird ".

In 2007, Furtado and Justin Timberlake were featured on Timbaland's single " Give It to Me (Timbaland song)|Give It to Me ",
which became her third number-one single in the U.S. and second in the UK. In late 2008, Furtado collaborated with James Morrison (singer)|James Morrison on a song called " Broken Strings " for his album Songs for You, Truths for Me . The single was released on December 8 and peaked at No.2 on the UK Singles Chart in early January.

In 2007, Furtado leaked plans to Flare (magazine)|Flare regarding a song she was set to duet for Kylie Minogue 's return. However, the song was not featured on her album X (Kylie Minogue album)|X , though Minogue says the aforementioned song "is still outstanding" and has plans to pursue it. She said, "I am looking forward to getting in the studio and doing it because I know Nelly and I would have a great time together". The track has not appeared on Minogue's 2010 album Aphrodite (album)|Aphrodite either. In 2008, she sang with the Italian group "Zero Assoluto" the ballad Win or Lose|Win or Lose – Appena prima di partire , released in Italy, France and Germany and whose video was shot in Barcelona. On December 31, 2008, El Diario La Prensa posted an article that Furtado is planning on recording songs in English and Spanish for her upcoming album and that it is "expected to launch on September 15, 2009".

2009–2010: Mi Plan and compilation albums

Furtado made a guest appearance on Flo Rida 's new album, R.O.O.T.S. , which was released on March 31, 2009. The track is titled " Jump (Flo Rida Song)|Jump ". Furtado has also made a guest appearance on Divine Brown (singer)|Divine Brown 's The Love Chronicles|Love Chronicles , co-writing and singing on the background of the song "Sunglasses".

In early March, a song called "Gotta Know" leaked onto the Internet and was said to be Nelly's. In response, on March 4, 2009, Furtado stated on her MySpace blog that the song is not hers and that she is recording two new albums: one in Spanish, and the other in Portuguese. Nelly Furtado announced via the Perez Hilton blog, that the Spanish album would be titled Mi Plan and the first single titled " Manos Al Aire " (in English, meaning "Hands in the Air").
The album will have twelve new songs, all in Spanish, as stated by Nelly in a message left in her official website.
The second single " Más (Nelly Furtado song)|Más " was released on July 21, as it was announced on Nelly's official MySpace. The third single "Mi Plan" (ft. Alex Cuba ) was released on iTunes on August 11, 2009 and " Bajo Otra Luz " (ft. Julieta Venegas and La Mala Rodriguez ) is the fourth and final countdown single and it was released on September 1, 2009. She also invited the Mexican star Alejandro Fernández to sing a duet song named "Sueños" ("Dreams"). The video for "Manos al Aire" premiered on July 29 on It's On with Alexa Chung . On November 11, 2010 Furtado won the Latin Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Album for Mi Plan . She is the first Canadian to win a Latin Grammy award.

Furtado made a guest appearance on Canadian singer k-os 's new album Yes! , collaborating alongside Saukrates on the song "I Wish I Knew Natalie Portman," released in early July 2009. Nelly Furtado will make a guest appearance on Tiësto 's single " Who Wants to Be Alone " on his new album Kaleidoscope (Tiësto album)|Kaleidoscope which was released on October 6, 2009. Furtado also recorded "Manos al Aire" in Simlish for the new Sims 3 expansion, World Adventures.

On February 12, 2010, Nelly Furtado sang in a duet with Bryan Adams at the 2010 Winter Olympics opening ceremony|opening ceremonies of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic Games . The song was called "Bang The Drum" released on EMI album Sounds Of Vancouver 2010 (a commemorative album). On February 14, 2010, she appeared again at the Winter Olympic Victory Ceremony after the awarding of the medals for the athletes. On April 13, 2010, Nelly announced on her Twitter account that Lifestyle , her fourth English studio album, would not be released during the summer of 2010 and that she will go on a second leg of her Mi Plan Tour where she will get more inspiration for her upcoming album Lifestyle . Nelly Furtado is featured in a new song by N.E.R.D. called "Hot N Fun". She also participated in the Young Artists for Haiti song, in which many Canadian artists came together and sang K'naan 's inspirational song " Wavin' Flag " to raise money for the victims of the Haiti Earthquake.

To promote the tour in Brazil , on March 24, 2010, Furtado made a "VIP Pocket Show" in reality show program Big Brother Brasil 10 from Rede Globo , the country's leading channel. She performed 5 songs from the tour in acoustic versions ("Maneater", "I'm Like A Bird", "Try", "Say It Right" and "Turn Off The Light"). Nelly Furtado participated in the live DVD recording of the Brazilian singer Ivete Sangalo in Madison Square Garden on September 4, 2010. Nelly Furtado sang two new songs: "Girlfriend in the City" and " Night Is Young " on her concert in Warsaw, Poland.

Furtado was honoured with a star on Canada's Walk of Fame in October 2010. On October 26, 2010, Furtado released Mi Plan Remixes featuring 12 tracks of remixed hits from "Mi Plan." This album included the Original Spanglish Version of "Fuerte", her final release from Mi Plan .

Furtado released her first greatest hits album titled The Best of Nelly Furtado on November 16, 2010. The album's first single, "Night Is Young" premiered on BBC Radio 1 on October 3, 2010. nellyfurtado.com Retrieved October 7, 2010 The song was first released for digital download on October 12, 2010 in Australia. Three new songs will be on the greatest hits album, including "Night Is Young", another collaboration Salaam Remi titled "Girlfriend in the City", and the Lester Mendez produced track, left over from the Loose sessions, "Stars".

2011–present: T.S.I. and other projects

On July 2, 2011, Furtado performed a new track, an acoustic ballad titled "Mystery", from her upcoming studio album. The proposed album is targeted for a Summer 2012 release and has attracted producers such as The Neptunes , Tiësto , Timbaland , Rick Nowels , Ryan Tedder and Rodney Jerkins . http://twitter.com/#!/ONLY1DARKCHILD/status/101104798820077569 At a concert in Lisbon,'Delta Tejo Festival', Furtado covered Jennifer Lopez 's 2011 hit single " On the Floor " which incorporates Kaoma 's 1989 single " Lambada ". Furtado announced that she would include rapper Nas on her upcoming lead single, amongst others to be featured on the album. Another album feature surfaced is Passion Pit 's lead singer Mike Angelakos on a track titled "The Edge", while Furtado also expressed interest to work once again with rapper Missy Elliot . Furtado continued to collaborate with hip-hop producer Salaam Remi , who previously worked on the 2010 single Night Is Young , on "The Edge". The lyrics for the Salaam Remi produced track are reported to be influenced by the Tiger Woods cheating scandal, in which was originally referred to as " Elin Nordegren|Elin 's Song". Furtado proclaims that T.S.I would be most like her 2000 debut Whoa, Nelly! , but containing elements from urban contemporary|urban , Alternative rock|alternative , and reggae . In addition is the first of Furtado's album to be completely in English. The influences for the album range from Janelle Monae , The xx , to Florence + the Machine . Furtado intends on promoting the album for at least two years while embarking on a tour.

Aside from T.S.I , Furtado was featured on one of the Game's The R.E.D. Album tracks, titled "Mamma Knows" (produced by The Neptunes).
For the Canadian film The Year Dolly Parton Was My Mom , Furtado lent her vocals for the Dolly Parton gospel cover " The Seeker (Dolly Parton song)|The Seeker " featured during the credits of the film. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0299140/ Furtado has simultaneously begun work on a full-length Portuguese language|Portuguese album, as a followup to her Spanish effort, Mi Plan . On October 17, 2011, Furtado made announced that she would be collaborating with recording artist Alex Cuba and K'naan once again. The duet with K'naan is entitled "Is Anyone Out There", released as the first single from his extended play More Beautiful than Silence . http://knaanmusic.ning.com/ http://buzzworthy.mtv.com/2012/01/24/knaan-nelly-furtado-is-anybody-out-there/

Other work

Record label

She has formed her own record label, Nelstar, in conjunction with Canadian independent label group Last Gang Labels. The first act signed to Nelstar is Fritz Helder & the Phantoms. Yahoo News, March 14, 2009 Furtado released her first Spanish single " Manos al Aire " on the new label.

Philanthropy

For World AIDS Day in 2006, Furtado took part in an AIDS awareness concert in South Africa hosted by MTV, Black Entertainment Television|BET , and Nike, Inc.|Nike ; fellow performers included Enrique Iglesias , Kanye West , Kelly Rowland , Snoop Dogg and Kelly Clarkson . Furtado also hosted a program about AIDS on MTV, which also featured guests Alicia Keys and Justin Timberlake . On September 27, 2011, Furtado announced during Free the Children's WeDay Toronto, that she was giving $1,000,000 to Free the Children's effort to build girls' schools in the Maasai region of Kenya.

Music influences

During her pre-teenage to teenage years, Furtado embraced many musical genres, listening heavily to mainstream contemporary R& B|R& B , hip hop music|hip hop , alternative hip hop , drum and bass , trip hop , world music (including Portuguese fado , Brazilian bossa nova and Music of India|Indian music ), and a variety of others. She cites diverse influences, which include soul-trip/hip hop artists such as De La Soul , TLC (band)|TLC , world music artists Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan , Amalia Rodrigues , as well as Caetano Veloso , Juanes , Jeff Buckley , Esthero , Björk , Cornershop , Oasis (band)|Oasis , Radiohead , The Smashing Pumpkins 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". 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 five and continues to discover new genres.

Her biggest influence when growing up was Ani DiFranco :

"When I was a teenager, I wanted to be (the feminist punk-folk singer) Ani DiFranco. I never wanted to be part of corporate music."

Personal life

On September 20, 2003, in Toronto, Furtado gave birth to a daughter, Nevis Chetan Furtado, whose father is 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)|Blender magazine that they continue to be good friends and jointly share responsibility of raising Nevis.

In June 2006, in an interview with Genre (magazine)|Genre magazine, when asked if she had "ever felt an attraction to women", Furtado replied "Absolutely. Women are beautiful and sexy". Some considered this an announcement of bisexuality , but in August 2006, she stated that she was "straight, but very open-minded". In November 2006, Furtado revealed that she once turned down $500,000 to pose fully clothed in Playboy .

Furtado married Cuban sound engineer Demacio "Demo" Castellón, with whom she had worked on the Loose album, on July 19, 2008.

Furtado is one of several celebrities who have came under fire after 2011 reports from the New York Times and a WikiLeaks document revealed several entertainers had received extravagant sums to perform for the family of Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi . She promised to donate to charity the $1& nbsp;million she received for a 2007 concert, which ended up going to Free the Children .

Furtado publicly endorsed Green Party of Canada|Green Party leader Elizabeth May in Saanich-Gulf Islands during the Canadian federal election, 2011|Federal election in 2011 .

Discography

Whoa, Nelly! (2000)

Folklore (Nelly Furtado album)|Folklore (2003)

Loose (Nelly Furtado album)|Loose (2006)

Mi Plan (2009)

T.S.I. (2012)

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Genre	Notes
2001	Roswell	Herself	American Science fiction Television series Internet Movie Database	Performed " I'm like a Bird "
2006	Floribella	Herself	Portuguese Soap Opera Soul Shine Magazine	Maneater "
2007	One Life to Live	Herself	American Soap Opera	Promiscuous "
2007	CSI: NY	Ava Brandt	American police procedural television series	Played Ava, a professional criminal accused of murder.
2007	'' Punk'd	Herself	American hidden camera practical joke television series	A victim of a bomb scare
2008	Max Payne	Christa Balder	Video game adaptation	The wife of Max Payne's slain ex-partner
2010	Big Brother Brasil	Herself	Brazilian reality show	Live performance
2010	Score : A Hockey Musical	An Ardent Hockey Fan	Canadian Film

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