Nelly Furtado (full name Nelly Kim Furtado) was born on December 2, 1978 in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. She is a Canadian singer-songwriter, instrumentalist, record producer, and occasional actress.
Biography and Career :
She is a very talented Canadian singer, coming from a background of playing instruments, one of the three children of Maria Manuela and Antonio Jose Furtado, working class Portuguese parents (from Sao Miguel Island in the Azores). She was named after Soviet gymnast Nellie Kim. Her parents emigrated from Portugal to Canada in the late 1970s.
Nelly stated that visiting her parents' birthplace, the Azores islands, as a child, experiencing its culture and learning the Portuguese language has made her an open-minded person. This has strongly influenced
her artistry as she has incorporated many cultural sounds into her music; it is also evident in her multilingualism as she can speak English, Portuguese, and to a lesser extent Spanish and Hindi. She has acknowledged her parents for instilling a hardcore work ethic; she spent eight summers working as a chambermaid with her mother, who was a housekeeper. She also said that coming from a working-class background had also shaped her identity in a positive way.
Nelly first sang at the age of four when she performed a duet with her mother at church on Portugal Day. At the age of nine, she began playing instruments, learning the trombone and ukulele and in later years, the guitar and keyboard. Songs were written for the first time at the age of twelve, while as a teenager, Nelly played in a Portuguese marching band.
Furtado came to fame in 2000 with the release of her debut album "Whoa, Nelly!", an international success, which featured the Grammy Award-winning "I'm Like a Bird" and "Turn off the Light".
Her second album Folklore (2003) came after Nelly gave birth to a daughter, but didn't do as well as the first one.
In 2006 she returned to prominence, to her hip-hop/pop roots with the release of "Loose" (produced by Timbaland) and its smash singles, "Promiscuous", "Maneater", "Say It Right" and "All Good Things (Come to an End)".
This year (2007), the fans enjoyed another great hit, "Give It To Me", performed with Justin Timberlake and Timbaland. The single quickly became Nelly’s third number-one single in the US and second in the UK.
Furtado is known for her musical eclecticism, continually experimenting with different instruments, sounds, genres, languages, and vocal styles. This diversity has been influenced by her wide-ranging musical taste and her interest in different cultures.
As for how Nelly flirted with acting, she began taking lessons in school plays in middle school. The acting formal studies came after she had planned to appear in an Indian Hindi language film, which, however, never became a realized dream. Acting courses taught her to "let go of [her] ego and feel really grounded"; this influenced the theme and creation of her third album Loose. Nelly Furtado prepared for a role in a second film, the independent drama Nobody's Hero (2006), but plans fell through as filming conflicted with the promotion of Loose.
Trivia :
- She is fluent in Hindi.
- She was voted one of the "Fun and Fearless Females" by Cosmopolitan Magazine (2002.)
- She is a Canadian of Portuguese decent.
- She speaks Portuguese fluently.
- She played eight dates on "the village stage" at Lilith Fair.
- She formed (and an ex-member of) trip-hop group Nelstar.
- She received one "Best Pop Vocal, Female" Grammy for her song "I'm Like A Bird" (2002)
- She graduated from Mount Douglas Secondary School in Victoria, B.C.
- She was a heavy smoker during her teenage years.
- Height : 5'1"/155 cm
- Her parents are Maria Manuela Furtado and Antonio Jose Furtado.
- She has a sister, Lisa Anne Furtado, and a brother, Michael Anthony Furtado.
Quotes :
- "Because of my Portuguese heritage, I have an interest in all of the instrumentation that comes from Portugal and Brazil as well."
- "I remember really bonding with the first generation kids, the Chinese Canadian kids, and in high school bonding with the Latin kids and the East Indian kids. It was very interesting because it made me open to lots of musical sounds."
- "I write pop songs. But I think it is sprinkled with a lot of counter-culture references. It ranged from rap to hip hop to trip hop, house, drum and bass, and experimental and improv and jazz."
Discogarphy :
Albums :
- Whoa, Nelly! - 2000
- Folklore - 2003
- Loose - 2006
- 4th Studio Album - 2007
Singles :
- "I'm Like a Bird" - 28 November 2000
- "Turn off the Light" - 14 August 2001
- "...On the Radio (Remember the Days)" - 3 December 2001
- "Hey, Man" - 16 July 2002
- "Powerless (Say What You Want)" - 8 December 2003
- "Try" - 15 March 2004
- "Forca" - 14 June 2004
- "Explode" - 27 September 2004
- "The Grass Is Green" - 28 February 2005
- "Promiscuous" (featuring Timbaland) - 25 April 2006
- "Maneater" - 26 May 2006
- "Te Busque" (featuring Juanes) - 8 July 2006
- "No Hay Igual" (featuring Calle 13) - 28 July 2006
- "Say It Right" - 12 September 2006
- "All Good Things (Come to an End)" - 2007
- "Give It to Me (Timbaland featuring Nelly Furtado & Justin Timberlake)" - 2007
- "In God's Hands" - 2007.
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