 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,
Nelly 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
Nelly 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
Nelly 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
Nelly 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
Nelly 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,
Nelly 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 headlining 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.
Nelly 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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