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cover story
Whoa Nelly
Already a star in American pop music, Portuguese
Canadian songstress Nelly Furtado
breaks ground, and barriers, with her new Spanish-language album
Mi Plan.
By Fernando Ruano, Jr.
It’s around lunchtime and Nelly Furtado is consumed
by thoughts of arroz con pollo. Engaged in lively banter about all
things food with one of her associates, the talk prompts a sudden
yearning for a plate of the traditional Cuban dish or a visit to
her mother in law’s kitchen.
“Oh, my God ... El [arroz con] pollo a la churrera is to die
for,” says Furtado, who’s married to Cuban-American
producer Demacio ‘Demo’ Castellon and a frequent visitor
to his parents’ suburban home in Miami. “Their cooking
rocks. The platanos maduros and all that stuff is... yum. I’m
getting hungry just thinking about all the food.”
Happily chatty and casually clad in a loose-fit pink tee and tight
grey-washed jeans, the 30-year-old Canadian-born singer/songwriter
boasts a girl-next-door like demeanor. By all appearances, she’d
definitely make a good dinner guest.
“I can do some damage around a dinner table,” Furtado
says. “I have a pretty good appetite for a girl.”
Her hunger and passion for good food is surpassed by her appetite
for musical creativity. To satisfy her professional hunger for something
new, Furtado, who’s known for her pop and radio-friendly English-language
tunes, branched out by recording, and completing, Mi Plan. It’s
her fourth full-length album, but her first in Spanish. It was released
in September by Furtado’s own Nelstar Music label.
Although Furtado has had a number of collaborations with Spanish-language
musicians to her credit (including Tu Fotografía with Juanes
for his Un Día Normal 2002 album and a remix of No Hay Igual
alongside Calle 13) the idea of recording and releasing an entire
album in a language she’s not fluent in might be considered
a risky move.
What made the project increasingly difficult was that it surfaced
not long after Furtado had completed an exhausting yearlong tour
to promote her 2006 chart-topping album Loose. She began in Europe
performing 23 shows in five weeks, traveled to Japan, crossed through
Canada and concluded in the U.S.
That album featured hit single Promiscuous, and sold more than 10
million copies worldwide, according to representatives at Universal
Music Latino. While wildly popular, the tour left her a bit winded
and short on inspiration.
“I wasn’t exactly in the mood [to write and get back
in the studio]. It was weird because in a way I had lost my desire
to write in English,” she says. “I was searching—and
needed—something new.”
At work in the studio with her close friend and guitarist James
Bryan and unsuccessfully trying to pen lyrics for a new album, Furtado,
the daughter of Portuguese immigrants, even tried her hand at authoring
songs in Portuguese—but she wasn’t too crazy with the
results.
Things started sounding different after Cuban-Canadian singer-songwriter
Alex Cuba dropped by one day and suggested she put it together in
Spanish.
“I really liked what I was hearing after Alex came into the
picture,” says Furtado, who listened to plenty of Latin music
in her teens in Victoria, British Columbia, including crooners Luis
Miguel and Laura Pausini.
“I learned Portuguese really young, so it helped with the
Spanish,” she says. As a student, Furtado had hung around
with plenty of friends of South-American descent and learned a choice
word—or two—in addition to taking Spanish courses in
school. But that was nothing compared to what she was experiencing
with Cuba and Bryan.
“I loved what I was hearing,” says Furtado. “I
felt free singing in Spanish and expressing myself . It was like
letting my Latin soul loose. The depth of the lyrics was gravitating
to me.”
The plan took a slight turn as the three headed back to the studio
to write material for the album. The result: 24 co-authored tracks
that were eventually cut down to a dozen, including duets with Alejandro
Fernández, Juan Luis Guerra, Julieta Venegas, Josh Groban
and La Mala Rodríguez.
Heavy on love relationships and adorned with an intimate and romantic
lyrics, the up-tempo dance, melodic and folksy album features lead
track Manos Al Aire, a club fixture that has already topped the
charts in Germany, Colombia and Argentina. The song has allowed
her to reach new heights in the U.S. as well, recently making Furtado
the first non-Hispanic to reach No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Latin
Songs chart with a Spanish cut.
While the Grammy-Award winning Furtado, who climbed her way up the
pop charts and left her footprints with I’m Like a Bird off
her debut album Whoa, Nelly! (2000) and Loose (2006), appears to
genuinely appreciate the fruits all the mainstream success have
allowed.
“I’ve always tried to keep a steady ground,” says
Furtado. “I’m blessed to have so many beautiful things
happening to me right now.” She admits to finding a new appreciation
for her profession after the birth of her now six-year-old daughter
Nevis. Furtado gets a kick whenever her daughter starts singing
(in Spanish no less) and asks questions about some of her new songs.
While enjoying the fruits of a new and successful production and
the anticipation of another long tour, she is also fond of the days
when the lights didn’t shine so brightly.
The wide-ranging Furtado, who has sold over 18 million records in
a career spanning a decade, recalls her musical roots. As an adolescent
she established herself by singing in church and playing the keyboard
and guitar (after losing interest in the trombone). “I was
just so moved with the sounds [of music]. Even as a kid I looked
forward to going to church because I knew I was going to get a chance
to sing.”
Furtado began sneaking out of her house in British Columbia and
into DJ booths as early as age 12. Interacting with underground
rappers and DJs led to invitations to contribute her vocals on a
few albums. On a summer visit to Toronto, Furtado met Tallis Newkirk
of hip-hop group Plains of Fascination, and the meeting resulted
in her contributing vocals to Waitin’ 4 The Streets on the
group’s 1996 album Joining The Ranks.
She moved to Toronto after graduating and soon teamed with Newkirk
to form Nelstar, a trip-hop duo that specialized in the down-tempo
sound that emerged from British hip-hop and house scenes of the
mid-1980s.
But it wasn’t until she performed at Honey Jam, an all-woman
music fest in 1997, that she garnered the attention of Philosopher
Kings singer Gerald Eaton and was invited to write songs with him.
Shortly after she cut a demo and had her first record deal with
Dream Works.
Party’s Just Begun (Again), her first single, was released
as part of the Brokedown Palace movie soundtrack. As part of the
Party, Furtado sings, “I feel like falling asleep and never
waking up. Its not like my glass is empty but I need another cup.”
Ten years later she finds herself swimming in unchartered waters,
but determined to keep moving forward. “I’ve never been
afraid of taking a risk,” says Furtado, whose recent album
was a surprise to some in the music industry because she is practically
unknown in Spanish-language music circles.
Furtado’s albums have a track record of success, and that
could spell continued success for the accomplished star—no
matter what language she sings in. “In my opinion music is
sort of a language in itself,” says Furtado. “It may
really sound vague but that’s what I’ve gathered from
just traveling [the world]. ”
Furtado is prepared to give her versatile chops quite the workout
in coming months with the continued traveling to show off her newest
baby and a possible tour next year. Regardless of the outcome, Furtado
says: “I do it from the heart.”
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