A Welcome Introduction: Nelly Furtado « Sharp – Canada's Magazine for Men

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May 2013

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A Welcome Introduction: Nelly Furtado

With five albums under her belt, a Grammy, ten Juno Awards and nearly 3 million Twitter followers, it wouldn’t be a stretch to consider Nelly Furtado a Canadian icon. When asked if she feels that way, she says “No. [laughs] I find that very overwhelming.” She says she finds herself at home among other musicians but still admits to being amazed when she sees fans in other countries singing her songs. “Being in Taiwan and seeing fans singing ‘I’m Like A Bird’… I mean, it’s definitely surreal. So I don’t really see myself as an icon… definitely not.”

From her raw acoustic ballad "Try” to the dance anthem “Maneater,” Furtado’s musical repertoire runs the gamut in terms of genre. She says, “Even with <i>Whoa, Nelly!</i> I had this sensibility of ‘Okay, I want my album to be commercial but I also really want it to be eclectic. I want to create my own sound.’ Take someone like Bruno Mars for instance – the way he creates singles that are cool but also commercial – and you listen to the work that went into it. I always strive for that. That kind of middle ground where you hear the musicality, but it’s also accessible. I think I was conscious about that, it was part of the challenge early on, you know? And then as the years went by I probably became less calculated about it.”

The list of collaborations Nelly Furtado has done over the years is exhaustive. From Timbaland to Michael Bublé to Andrea Bocelli, her discography reads like a who’s who of the music industry. “I collaborate on everything. Even with my latest music video [‘Waiting for the Night’], I decided I wanted to direct it myself but obviously couldn’t do it completely alone. So, I had to get a team of people and we all worked together. I came up with the term ‘The Seed Collective’ and we produced and directed together.”
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She even goes so far as to say, “I’ll collaborate with anyone. Like, if you said you wrote songs and you wanted to write a song right now, I’d be like ‘Sure, let’s do it!’ It keeps it fresh for me. […] It’s the process of discovery, of not knowing what you’re going to get, almost like when you’re cooking and just making up the recipe, not knowing what the result’s going to be like. That curiosity always keeps me looking for the next duet, the next collabo.”
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An impromptu jam session with this sultry siren? Tempting...

Unlike other Canadian artists who make it big and leave for greener pastures, Furtado continues to give back to the fans from her home country. The B.C. native came to Toronto as a teenager and describes the city as representing “a world full of opportunity.” She adds, “For someone who loves music, I remember riding the Queen Street streetcar and going to all the musical haunts and seeing shows I loved and recording late at night with my friends. It gives you this sort of edge when you start off in the city. It has so much to offer.
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For me being Canadian, especially touring Canada this month, I’ve really been reminded of how beautiful the country is and how much open free space we have. I think there’s some sort of spiritual connection between songwriting and having physical space around you. I grew up in B.C. with a lot of forests and ocean vistas and there’s something inspiring about that.”

Since she’s touring, we decided to ask her about her modus operandi when it comes to creating a set list. “It’s so hard… it’s like the hardest assignment ever.” She continues, “It’s whatever sticks to the wall, you kind of know what’s not working pretty quickly and […] the stuff that’s not going to make it through the round is just going to fall on the ground.”
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Like spaghetti?
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“Yeah! It’s true. It’s like spaghetti! […]It’s so hard because I have dozens of collaborations and five albums and songs in three different languages. So it’s like, ‘Whoa! We’re playing Canada! Is this going to be a Latin audience at all? Are there going to be Portuguese people? Should I play “Força”? Oh jeez, if I do “Quando, Quando” will people know what it is?’ And then it’s the flow of the show, right? You want to try to have a nice ebb and flow, and it always has to climax at the end. No matter what, it has to ramp up. You just try your best, but you can’t please everyone.”

When asked if “Like a Prayer” is on her set, she laughed, “Yes, it is! Shamelessly. Madge is an institution.” It’s not a stretch to imagine Furtado singing something from the oeuvre of the Queen of Pop, considering there have been comparisons between the two in the past, particularly during Furtado’s <i>Loose</i> era. She finds the comparisons flattering, “I love it! [laughs] I’ll take it.”
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However, she’s not too keen on being compared to people she pre-dates. More recently, there were comparisons between her single “Big Hoops (Bigger The Better)” and some of Rihanna’s work. “Of course it’s flattering ‘cause I think she [Rihanna] is great and I love her voice, but at the same time my music pre-dates hers. I think it’s silly when people compare you to people that you pre-date. If you give an honest look at my repertoire, and obviously if you educated yourself, you wouldn’t think that or say that. But I think people write online without really thinking or researching most of the time anyways. “

The Lightning Round

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