Nelly Furtado Music and Career
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Singer/songwriter Nelly Furtado heavily credits her ethnic background and childhood for culturally and crucially spawning her creativity as a female and as an inspiring musician. Born and raised in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, Furtado’s working-class parents, whom are of Portuguese decent, instilled a hardcore work ethic during her upbringing.
She spent eight summers working as a chambermaid with her housekeeping mother, quickly realizing what it meant to honestly make a living. She turned to music for enjoyment, learning to play the guitar and the ukulele, and listened to mainstream R&B like Mariah Carey, TLC, Jodeci, Salt-N-Pepa, and Bell Biv DeVoe. Later, she delved into her older brother’s collection of Radiohead, Pulp, Oasis, Portishead, the Verve, and U2, pushing Furtado to fully embrace different musical genres, specifically Brazilian music and material by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Amalia Rodrigues.
Hip-hop was also a big catalyst in shaping Furtado’s musical appreciation. After high school, she headed to Toronto where she worked at an alarm company by day and experienced the music scene by night.
She joined a hip-hop duo tagged Nelstar, and this opportunity led Furtado back to her hip-hop influences of De La Soul and Digable Planets. This allowed her to get comfortable with writing her own melodies and freestyle rhymes.
When Furtado started cutting loose at a local Toronto club during the week, her musical aspirations began to swirl. Brian West and Gerald Eaton, who were of the Canadian funk-pop group the Philosopher Kings, were instantly impressed by her strong sense of performing and asked to produce her demo. During those sessions, Furtado created some of the moving work which landed on her debut for Dreamworks; these solid collaborations led to the pertinent introduction of Nelly Furtado and the critical acclaim of her debut Whoa Nelly!, released in fall 2000.
A headling tour of the U.S in spring 2001 sparked more interest from fans and critics, and a spot on Moby’s Area:One summer tour allowed singles “I’m Like a Bird” and “Turn Off the Light” to receive bigger praise. Furtado’s greatest achievement followed a year later when she earned four Grammy nods, including “Song of the Year” for “I’m Like a Bird.” Folklore appeared in November 2003, nearly two months after Furtado gave birth to her first child, a daughter named Nevis. ~ MacKenzie Wilson, All Music Guide
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