Raised
amongst the picturesque scenery of the British Columbian capitol, Nelly
Furtado was the first of her Portuguese family to have been born on
Canadian soil. The extensive musical involvement of her parents and
grandparents worked its influence on Furtado from the very beginning:
at the age of four, she was already singing in both English and
Portuguese and accompanying herself on the ukelele. Starting at the age
of nine, she began broadening her instrumental skills to include a
considerably larger quantity of saliva, taking up the trombone and
putting it to use in jazz, classical and marching band contexts. By her
teen years she had added the guitar to her repetoire and Hindi to her
vocabulary, working to hone her vocal skills throughout and throwing in
dance training to keep her lower half from getting bored. In the early
90s the hip-hop stylings of acts like TLC and Ice-T
made a strong impression; inspired by their approach to creating songs,
her own exploration of hip-hop sampling techniques was undertaken, and
for a time Furtado contributed backing vocals to a Toronto-based
hip-hop group.
The eclectic musical stew created by these varied experiences first set
music industry stomachs grumbling at a talent contest in Toronto, where
the bulk of Furtado's competition consisted of black R&B singers.
In attendance was the manager of the Canadian funk band The Philosopher Kings,
who immediately recognized the 18-year-old singer's potential; soon
afterwards a demo session was arranged with the King's Eaton and
West/Track and Field production team. Unsure of what direction her
future should take, Furtado hesitated before fully commiting herself to
a recording career -- in the midst of completing her education. A
productive second session in Toronto decided the issue, however, as
well as paving the way for a contract with DreamWorks Records: by the
end of 2000 her debut offering Whoa Nelly! was on the streets and manhandling the music charts. Leading with the single I'm Like A Bird and following up with Turn Off The Light and Shit on the Radio (Remember the Days),
she took up residence in the top 40 for the first couple years of the
00s. Her popularity took off with such velocity that before long she
was added to the Lilith Fair touring festival roster alongside many
veteran female performers.
Subsequent to the release of her first album, Furtado focused for a
while on the hip-hop corner of her interests, contributing vocals to
both the remix of Missy Elliott's Get Ur Freak On and the Timbaland-produced Ms. Jade single Ching Ching (adding a bit of Indian flavoring to the latter). With the release of her second album Folklore
(2003), a less pop-oriented return to her blend of musical influences
was made and a greater emphasis was placed on non-Western sources -- a
choice reflected in diverse selection of guest performers that appear
on the various tracks, who range from the avant-garde ensemble The Kronos Quartet to Brazilian legend Caetano Veloso and banjo virtuoso Bela Fleck. The album also featured the track Forca,
commisioned by the country of her parent's birth for the Euro 2004
football (soccer) tournament in Portugal; the following year Furtado
would perform the song during the tournament's opening ceremony.
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