Nelly Furtado

Biography: Nelly Furtado is a singer and songwriter. As a daughter of Portuguese parents whom immigrated to Canada, she had been exposed to different genres ever since she was a child, such as Portuguese folk and religious music. Having no musical boundaries, she had limitless taste. She showed up in the scene in the year 2000, with the album "Whoa, Nelly!" (on Dreamworks Records). It contained many hits, including Top 10 Billboard hits such as I'm Like a Bird and Turn Off the Light. By then she was a young Canadian singer who presented to fans a whole new, hip-hop, Portuguese fado, soul, Brazilian, folk and dance genre, all combined together to form lovely and emotional songs. She won the "Best New Solo Artist" and "Best Songwriter" at the 2001 Juno Awards. I'm Like a Bird won the "Best Female Pop Vocal" at the 2002 Grammy Awards. "Whoa, Nelly!" remained a presence in the marketplace for 2 years, which equals to lifetime in Pop music standards. While performing her 2002 tour, she began working on her second album, "Folklore". She understood that working alone wipes out the fun of the music so she returned to work with Track and Field, the two that worked with her on her first album. Her second album symbolized her maturity. The first one was, as she says, happy and energetic, because she believed she wouldn't be able to perform behind a microphone and with a melancholic melody. This one is different. Now she is more decisive. Still adventurous, but having the thirst for the reality of the Folk and different music forms. She used to like Prince's music, and especially the song Power Fantastic. As she says, he had a lush and gorgeous voice which was so beautifully vocalized in this song. She was also a fan of Smashing Pumpkins and Jeff Buckley. To conclude, Nelly has said once, "I would like to be described as a girl sitting on a porch, on a rocking chair, singing to the wind". There are promised to be a lot more successful years of making great music, before she could relax as she describes.… Expand