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Nelly Furtado Interview
"I am impressed when music matters, when genres are broken, when spirits are lifted, and when people make a difference." These are the opening lines to Nelly Furtado's self-penned bio, which the then-teenager sent around with a demo tape and pictures from a mall photo booth, hoping a record label might take notice. She surely couldn't have predicted the bidding war that ensued, or the prestige she was about to earn. Ultimately, it was DreamWorks, a label founded on respect for artistry above all else, that signed the young beauty. One can assume it was impressed with her R&B diva soul, pop princess sass, and innate appreciation for ethnic diversity. Furtado's debut album, Whoa, Nelly!, came out this fall to heaps of praise. Born in Victoria, British Columbia, to working-class Portuguese immigrants, Furtado, now 21, first sang in public at the age of 4, began playing ukulele at 9, and wrote her first song at 12. Where some young girls might ask for dolls or clothes at Christmas time, Nelly would ask for synthesizers and recording equipment. "I was so into it," she remembers fondly, recalling that her teenage bedroom was "plastered" with images from Rap Pages magazine. "It was my refuge," she adds. But it wasn't one from which her parents were excluded. Music lovers themselves, they encouraged their daughter's passion, and only protested once: when Nelly decided to move to Toronto at 17. There she formed her first band, a trip-hop duo called Nelstar, which recorded songs and even made a video. But the ambient genre couldn't encompass all Nelly's influences - everyone from TLC to Smashing Pumpkins to Cornershop to Brazilian music to the marching band her mother's family played in. For her music to reflect everything that inspired her, she would have to shift gears. |
