Hi everybody..Sorry I have not left a message in a while..I was so busy with the holidays..I wish everyone out there reading this message a very wonderful new year. Did you make any new years resolutions….I hope all your dreams come true in 2004…..My new single is coming out within weeks..thanks for making powerless a hit, and thanks for supporting my new album folklore. if it weren’t for the fans, I would be picking berries on a farm somewhere getting a suntan and having ten more babies…so thanks for keeping me in the game. lets make 2004 special .I will be seeing you on the road this year and I can’t wait to play all of these new songs live.

I was working in the studio the other night..maybe ill have another new album out by the end of this year..you never know..I will pull a jay-z on everyone..an album a year….you probably don’t believe me, since folklore was spaced three years from whoa, nelly…I will see where the music takes me… I am shooting the video for try with sophie mueller next weekend. it’s gonna be friggety fresh.. she is the coolest..she did turn off the light.

see you on tv!!!!!

thanks for all the love. KEEP PAINTING YOUR OWN FOLKLORE!!!

Love, Nelly

SINGER Nelly Furtado (she’s, like, a bird) confesses: “They asked me to write a song for the European Football Championship in 2004, and I was like, ‘What a challenge! How am I gonna write a stadium anthem and not be cornball-y?’ I had to dig deep.”

Now take a look at Nelly’s lyrics to “Forca” and, using your own skill and judgement, decide whether or not she succeeded in avoiding being “cornball-y”.

“It is the passion flowing right on through your veins
And it’s the feeling that you’re oh so glad you came
It is the moment you remember you’re alive
It is the air you breathe, the element, the fire
It is that flower that you took the time to smell
It is the power that you know you got as well
It is the fear inside that you can overcome
This is the orchestra, the rhythm and the drum
It is the soundtrack of your ever-flowing life
It is the wind beneath your feet that makes you fly
It is the beautiful game that you choose to play
When you step out into the world to start your day
You show your face and take it in and scream and pray
You’re gonna win it for yourself and us today
It is the gold, the green, the yellow and the grey
The red and sweat and tears, the love you go. Hey!”

NOT A BALL OF CORN IN SIGHT!

Source: The Mirror

Nelly Furtado - Folklore

A few years ago, Nelly Furtado emerged, albeit slowly, as a spry pop performer whose debut album, 2000’s Whoa, Nelly!, merged unlikely genres together. The Grammy-winning, Portuguese singer/songwriter from Canada had a knack for modern pop, which, on one hand, led to ear-candy like “I’m Like a Bird” and multiplatinum sales, and, on the other, grounded her image with an adult, MOR-like sensibility that threatened to marginalise her.

Her sophomore release, Folklore, still champions on agreeable chord progressions and easy-to-digest production. And it retains her astute skill at blending different tones and subgenres together. However, it features the depth and focus missing from her debut. Folklore is arguably a concept album about one’s roots and personal narrative, scored by a musical diversity consistent with Furtado’s global, cultural experience. But rather than placing an emphasis on throwing as much as possible in the pot, she and producers Track & Field mix a categorical foundation that, along with the singer’s personal lyricism and effortless melodicism, binds the songs together. The end product falls somewhere between post-angst Alanis Morissette and post-frat Dave Matthews Band.

Banjoes, violins, organs, tablas, congas and other fringe instruments colour the entire album. Furtado recalls various locations of her past, from her birthplace in the celebratory “Forãa” (which means “keep going” in Portuguese) to her spiritual upbringing in the ethereal “Childhood Dreams.” The synergy between the elements never feels concerted, just occasionally overprocessed; the biggest problem might just be that, for all it’s self-conscious reflection, the album isn’t as revealing as it presumes to be. But it is undoubtedly personal, emphasised by the passion Furtado evokes in each song. She has offered a few different entry points with Folklore, and in the process she’s not only lived up to expectations, she’s elevated her artistry to surpass them. Good for her.

Mike Prevatt

Singer Embraces Diversity
3rd January 2004

Pop songstress with gay following earns it through open-mindedness on fresh CD with newfound depth.

By ARJAN TIMMERMANS

FROM THE ASHES of teenpop rises Nelly Furtado with a fresh take on pop music. On her latest album “Folklore,” the Canadian singer spreads a message of tolerance and diversity through her empowering lyrics and exotic rhythms.

In a recent telephone interview, Furtado says that she is a “spunky girl” who does not fit a musical mold. She says that she feels strongly about reaching all kinds of people with her unique brand of genre-crossing music — including gay listeners.

Furtado keeps an open mind and admits past attractions to women.

“Women are gorgeous,” Furtado says. “They are the sexiest.”

Furtado decided to take a long break and settle down after the success of her debut CD “Whoa Nelly!,” her Grammy win for “Best Female Pop Vocal Performance” in 2002 and three years of strenuous touring.

“Two days after the Grammy Awards, I felt this need to settle down and have a family,” says Furtado, 25. “I guess I was looking for some balance in my life.”

She found true love with musician little’ Jaz, and in September the couple welcomed a baby daughter. In November, Furtado also released her much-anticipated second album, “Folklore.”

“FOLKLORE” IS A WELL-ROUNDED kaleidoscope of world beats, music styles and instrumentals that oddly enough fit well under Furtado’s innovative direction. The singer wrote and co-produced the majority of the record with long-time collaborators Track and Field (Brian West and Gerald Eaton).

The singer explains that “Folklore” is inspired by culture, love, fresh energy and other sentiments often associated with folk music.

“Every nation and every country has it’s own version of folk music,” she says. “[Folk music] is the idea of somebody picking up a guitar and singing about what’s around them.”

Once again, Furtado combines musical diversity with a message of tolerance that will likely resonate with many of her gay fans.

“My music has a message of diversity and open-mindness,” Furtado says. “It reflects many identities, whether it is cultural, racial, musical or sexual. One thing about my music is that it’s genderless. Guys, girls, gay and straight love my music.”

Furtado lights up when she speaks about her gay fan base.

“Nothing makes me prouder than seeing a gay couple holding hands at one of my shows,” she says. “I feel happy that I can create a place where they can be themselves.”

She agrees that her empowering lyrics could appeal to young gay fans during their coming-out.

“Many fans have written me how my music has helped them to accept who they are,” Furtado says.

“FOLKLORE” IS A DEPARTURE from the quirky, youthful exuberance on “Whoa Nelly!” Besides the happy-go-lucky “Fresh Off The Boat” and energetic “Forca,” the singer also explores darker sentiments.

“Explode” is a haunting track that deals with teenage angst, rape and drugs.

“When you’re young, you’ve got this electricity, like a little firework,” Furtado explains. “Their life is like a roller coaster, and you just hope they have a little angel on their shoulder to watch out for them.”

The poignant “One Trick Pony” shows a healthy dose of attitude, when she sings, “Nobody can control me.”

The single “Powerless (Say What You Want)” features the Kronos Quartet and deals with the pressure on Furtado to conform within the music industry.

Furtado croons about the reality of life and relationships on the epic ballad “Try.”

On the lullaby “Childhood Dreams,” she mixes authentic church organs and Indian tablas. Equally refreshing is her unlikely duet with Brazilian legend Caetano Veloso on the breezy “Island of Wonder.”

Furtado says that she is not disappointed by the modest Billboard chart entry for “Folklore” at number 38.

“I think this record will be around for a while,” she says. “My first record only sold 6,000 copies in the first week, so I’m not complaining now.”

Source

Nelly Furtado nearly gave it all away after her hit debut, reports Steve Morse.

Nelly Furtado was a meteoric new presence three years ago. Her debut album Whoa! Nelly went multiplatinum, earned four Grammy nominations and produced the hit I’m Like a Bird. Carefree pop hadn’t been this much fun in a while. She even had bird-chirping noises on the album - along with rhythms from her Portuguese heritage, and hip-hop beats.

“It was a blast. It was a party,” Furtado recalls. “It was everything I wanted it to be. And then I went out and had a party with it on tour.”

The party stopped, however, and it’s been a slow road back for Furtado. Her record company sought a follow-up album in 2002 but she wasn’t ready. As late as April last year, she says, she didn’t know if she wanted to make another album. “I thought of going back to school to study creative writing.”

The “pressure to be fresh” also gnawed at her. Yet Furtado, 24, has dispelled those fears to release new album Folklore . It’s a more serious album that takes off the party hat and reveals her as a mature young woman with a lot to say about the immigrant experience (she grew up in Canada as the daughter of parents from the Azores), childhood dreams, and not being pigeonholed.

She casts out stereotypes in the first song, One-Trick Pony , where she sings, “I am not a one-trick pony/ I really feel nothing can hold me/ I really feel no one can own me.” It launches the theme of empowerment that runs throughout the album, making this a quantum leap from her harmless debut.

“Everything just came from the heart. There’s nothing calculated at all on this record,” she says.

Furtado has lived in Toronto since secondary school but her life has changed and her musical adventurousness has only increased. The new album includes guest appearances by the Kronos Quartet and banjo wizard Bela Fleck, plus turntable scratcher little’ Jazz (also the father of her child) and world music star Caetano Veloso, who is “the biggest influence on my music”, she says.

“I had met Caetano only once and was completely speechless,” says Furtado. “It was at a show in Sao Paulo. You never really want to be friends with your idols, so I was very nervous . . . But what I like about him is that he’s done such a vast number of things, from a Billie Jean cover (of the Michael Jackson song) to tropicalia and soap opera ballads. And he has the spirit of a 12-year-old. He’s very open. And that’s how I try to be.”

Furtado initially tried Butch Vig (Nirvana, rubbish) as producer, but it didn’t work. She finally went back to the Toronto production team who had done her first album. Everything then fell into place, including Furtado’s attitude.

“The entertainment business is so weird,” she says. “But then I remembered how much I loved performing and writing music. I realised that I was going to make music my whole life.”

Many of the new songs are simply exquisite. She taps into the pulse of young people on Explode , a rocking rite-of-passage song about the teenage years, in which “you smoke, you toke, you want, you flaunt, you hit it and you’re in it, and it’s spinning and it’s wild”.

The most moving tracks attest to the background of her family as immigrants. The song Fresh Off the Boat gives a positive spin to the often negative connotation of the title phrase. “The wine tastes good on my sweet lips like sunshine,” she sings, imagining the celebration after first landing on new soil.

“Yes, I’m glamorising the aesthetic of being ‘fresh off the boat’,” she says. “But I’m so proud of how my relatives lived their lives - with one foot in one country and another in their old land. I’ve dealt with the idea of displacement my whole life.”

Furtado calls this her “folkie” album, and she admits to some Joni Mitchell influences. There is banjo on several tracks, too, sometimes mixed with hip-hop rhythms. “I feel like I’ve tapped into a new level of emotion with this record,” she says. “It feels good.”

Source