Nelly Furtad

Born on December 2, 1978
Nelly Kim Furtado is a Canadian singer-songwriter, record producer, and actress. She has sold over 18 million albums worldwide, and currently resides in Toronto. Furtado grew up in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.

Sexiness

Nelly Furtado is one of those performers who just naturally exudes sex appeal, and she's been compared to Madonna for it. Though she has admitted to turning down an offer to pose for Playboy, Nelly Furtado has never been shy to use her body to raise eyebrows and sell records. Her decision to reinvent herself as a sultry seductress with the release of 2006’s Loose proved to be a controversial one, though there’s little doubt that it proved instrumental in cementing her status as a sex bomb. Nelly Furtado’s 2007 No. 48 and 2008 No. 64 appearances on our Top 99 Most Desirable Women list came as a result of that shift.

Nelly Furtad Quotes

“Girls like to see girls dressed up like princesses occasionally. Guys don't really care, they just want to get the clothes off.”

"I always know there's a new genre left to discover. For me, it's like a metaphor for life. I feel like if you can get down with any style of music, you can get down with any style of person. So it's fun for me—I get to expose my fans to different vibes and they, in turn, open their minds too. I'm always undergoing mind-opening."

"Being a mother, I don't have time to go to clubs. So I put fake club scenes in my videos to make it look like I get out more."

"I'm very in love with Gael Garcia Bernal, but I think he's with Natalie Portman. It's not fair! "

"I’m sick of pristine pop records – I wanted something more immediate and raw. Even my label tried to get me to change the final mix because they thought it was too edgy and they thought people weren’t used to that from me."

"I’m from a small town in Victoria, Canada, and as a teenager I used to obsess about R&B and hip-hop stars. All their posters were on my walls. Being in Miami with Timbaland, I felt like I was on the pulse of hip-hop culture because he’s always really in tune with everything that’s going on. He always knows what the next wave’s going to be. He’s a trailblazer in music – whatever he comes out with ... "

"I like my body so much more now since having my baby. It's just kind of empowering when you become a mother. You just get overwhelmed with this new confidence and you feel really in control of your life. It's been beautiful."

- Nelly Furtado

nelly furtado lands a record deal
Nelly's newfound band, called Nelstar, turned out to be a short-lived endeavor as she decided to focus on her solo work and develop her own musical voice. She spent the next few years working on demos and establishing herself in and around the Toronto area. In 1999, Nelly Furtado’s tenacity and hard work paid off after she was signed to a record deal with DreamWorks. Her first release with the company was the song “Party’s Just Begun (Again),” which was included as part of the soundtrack for the 1999 Claire Danes/Kate Beckinsale thriller Brokedown Palace.

nelly furtado records whoa, nelly!
Nelly Furtado spent the better part of 2000 working on her debut album, and in October of that year, Whoa, Nelly! was released to favorable reviews and mild financial success. Nelly Furtado’s fortunes took a turn for the better after “I’m Like a Bird” was released as a single; the song became a worldwide phenomenon that quickly catapulted Nelly to the forefront of the music scene. Anchored by the strength of follow-up singles “Turn off the Light” and “…On the Radio,” Whoa, Nelly! became a bona fide sensation, selling over five million copies around the globe. Nelly Furtado also found herself nominated for four Grammys, with “I’m Like a Bird” taking the award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.

nelly furtado releases folklore
2003 brought two major events to Nelly Furtado's life: the birth of a daughter, Nevis (the father is DJ Jasper Gahunia) and the release of her second album, Folklore. While Folklore failed to mimic the success of Whoa, Nelly!, it moved plenty of copies nonetheless. This was due in great part to the designation of one single, "Forca," as the official anthem of the 2004 European Football Championship.

nelly furtado releases loose
Folklore may have failed to achieve the same success as Whoa, Nelly!, but Nelly Furtado's 2006 album, Loose, far surpassed it. The album reached No. 1 in several countries, produced a number of hit singles ("Promiscuous" and "Maneater" most prominent among them) and led to additional collaborations with its producer, Timbaland.

on why her album ‘Loose‘ is a change of musical direction for her:
You know, I think motherhood [to daughter Nevis, two]. Childbirth and feeling like a new woman – like more of a woman. I’ve kind of blossomed, I’m in the prime of my late 20s, and I’m expressing that a little more in my music. I think with each album an artist has to reveal another side of themselves. I think it adheres people to you because it shows that you’re vulnerable and that you’re willing to take new risks. I think it’s endearing. You have to evolve. And my musical history is so rich – my musical knowledge is so vast – that I feel like I have a lifetime of surprises up my sleeve. With each album I hope to unveil a new surprise.

on recording in Miami:
You’d see Paris Hilton, Ricky Martin, rappers, it was incredible, it really was. It was exhilarating – every day was something new. One moment there’d be Puff Daddy filming his reality show in the parking lot and the next day some guy would be bringing in a briefcase of cash for a Timbaland beat. I feed off energy like that. I felt like all my hip-hop dreams were coming true.

on her bottom:
It’s nice to have something to hang on to. It’s just coming out of the woodwork, though, so it’s still shy - it doesn’t want too much spotlight.

on the pressures of staying in shape and keeping fit.
Yeah, actually. It’s kinda good though, because it keeps you on your toes. With Maneater I worked hard. I danced a lot that week because I wanted to be able to do all the moves and stuff. It was my first time trying real actual set choreography and, God, my feet were in a sink of ice the night before the video because I’d been in high heels all week and they were really in pain. My feet have never felt that way in my life. But it was kind of like a rite of passage because the next day I had to dance in front of 50 of the best dancers in L.A.. But that was exciting for me – the challenge. I keep challenging myself, pushing my own buttons, you know?

So what really interests you about South Asian music, and the films?
God, I love films, they’re incredible! Actually, a Canadian director named Deepa Mehta was born in India, [and] she just came out with a third part of her trilogy, Water – I don’t know if you’ve seen the film, but it’s absolutely beautiful. She went through a struggle to film it, and actually ended up shooting it in Sri Lanka. But it’s a gorgeous film, and I think anybody would appreciate it; anyone interested remotely in Indian culture. I met her actually: she was walking off a plane, and I literally ran 100 metres, and I was like "aahh, hiiii, I'm Nelly Furtado, and I love your films!" [Laughter]. And she also did the movie Bollywood Hollywood which is great. But I do love the traditional Bollywood films. I was originally going to do the Ranga de Basanti movie, in India, actually...

Well first of all, let’s just hit one of the hottest albums: Loose. What was your inspiration behind the whole album, and the name of the album, especially?

You know what, Loose came to me after doing sessions with Jurassic 5, and The Roots, and Timbaland, like all these hip-hop acts. When Nelly came out asking for collaborations I was like "yeah sure", and I did as many as I could fit into my schedule. And every time I did, I got this great feeling, like I didn’t have to try. It was as if like it was effortless, like it was really natural, because I grew up on Hip Hop and R 'n' B, and my walls were plastered with Hip Hop and R 'n' B stars growing up. That was my life, and I felt that it was time to do an album that kind of paid tribute to that side of me - Timbaland really brings that out of me. He also brings out this darker, more strong, powerful me in the studio, and I just love that. I just love him to death, and we had this special chemistry - we really wanted the world to hear that, you know?

Notes :
# Nelly was ranked #49 in Maxim's Hot 100 Women 2008.
# Nelly ranked #26 in Maxim's 2007 Hot 100 List.
# Nelly won the award for World's Best Pop/Rock Artist at the 2006 World Music Awards.
# Nelly's Promiscuous was the biggest song on the charts of 2006, having a six week place at #1 on Billboard's Hot 100.
# Nelly started singing at age 4.
# Furtado worked as a maid with her mother, who was a housekeeper.
# Furtado is able to speak Spanish, Portuguese and Hindi.
# Furtado began writing songs at age 12.
# Furtado won a Grammy Award for her debut single I'm Like a Bird.
# Furtado started playing the trombone and ukulele at age 9. Later, she learned to play the guitar and keyboard.
# Furtado shares the same birthday with Britney Spears and Canadian actress Cassie Steele.
# Nelly was furious when a men's magazine digitally removed her clothes in order for the singer to appear in more revealing outfits. The singer insists that she would never pose in the sexy outfits.
# In June 2006, in an interview with Genre magazine, when asked if she had "ever felt an attraction to women", Furtado replied "Absolutely. Women are beautiful and sexy". Some considered this an announcement of bisexuality, but in August 2006, she stated that she was "straight, but very open-minded". In November 2006, Furtado revealed that she once turned down US$ 500,000 to pose fully-nude in Playboy.

Birthday: 12/2/1978
Nickname: Nell
Birthname: Nelly Kim Furtado
Hookups:
Demacio \"Demo\" Castellon,
DJ Jasper Gahunia
Hometown: Victoria, British Columbia
Assets: Beautiful eyes and smile,
curvy body
Vices: Straight, but very open-minded
Sign: Sagittarius
Height: 5'6
Job: Singer, actress
Hobbies: Rollerblading,
rock climbing
Ethnicity: White
Country of Origin: Canada
Website NellyFurtado.com