The new international music star speaks about her Azorean parents and grandparents, love and work. An intimate conversation.
By Anabela Mota Ribeiro, Reader’s Digest
Edited & Translated from Portuguese by Joana Canavilhas for SOTR
Interview Feb 2001, Published Jun 2001
Anabela Mota Ribeiro: Can you tell me about your Azorean grandfather, a band conductor?
Nelly Furtado: My grandfather Virgínio Araújo Neto was a legend in S. Miguel. His brother also played in a band. (…) There was a big passion for music in my mother’s house.
AMR: Where did they live?
NF: Ponta Garça, S. Miguel. They were farmers.
AMR: Were the lyrics of their songs about their work?
NF: They were instrumentals. They didn’t write lyrics. I don’t know where my passion for writing lyrics comes from. My musical inspiration comes from my grandfather, my uncle, my mother.
AMR: How old was your mother when she went to Canada?
NF: 25 years old. My dad went first; he emigrated with his family to Canada also at the age of 25. He met my mum on a Summer holidays in S. Miguel, started dating and then he told her to go to Canada so they would get married. My mum is 54. My dad is going to be 60 next Wednesday.
AMR: Are going to be home for your father’s birthday?
NF: No.
AMR: What are you going to be doing on that day?
NF: I’m going to be at the David Letterman Show.
AMR: Do you get nervous for being in such an important show in which every artist wants to be?
NF: I get nervous. I’ve been on Jay Leno, Saturday Night Live, which is the most important one for music, and this week, in England, I’ve been in 6 tv shows, live. I’m getting used, losing my fear. Jay Leno was the 2nd tv show I’ve been to, it happened too early on my career and I was really nervous. I was afraid that I wouldn’t be what people expected. The voice becomes shaky and the music doesn’t sound as good as it should.
AMR: Are you afraid that you may not sing well?
NF: Yes. Before I’m on stage, I can only think of trying not to be nervous. The music is the most important thing. When I think of that, I calm down. If I think ‘Oh, my parents are home watching’, ‘oh, there’s so many people watching’, ‘ah, my dress’, I’m not exactly there at that moment.
AMR: Your life has changed so much that you can’t even be there at your father’s birthday. How was last year?
NF: I was in LA recording the CD. These past 2 years have been very tiring, without free time. Especially on the CD recording, we worked a lot. 12 hours per day, 6 days per week. But I was there for my mum’s birthday.
AMR: In all your interviews, you speak about your mother much more than you speak about your father.
NF: Mothers… there’s always a stronger relationship. My father is more calm, silent.
AMR: What kind of things do you tell your mum that you wouldn’t tell you dad?
NF: Many things. My dad is older. Our relationship is now becoming more open. With my mum, there was the music: I sang with her, I participated on church stuff with her. My dad enjoys being alone in the garden, in peace. A part of me is like him, calm and quiet. But there’s the other part of me that enjoys being on stage, being a star, likes to live.
Playing guitar at coffee shops
AMR: Did they pay you?
NF: Many times it was for free. I did it to show my songs to people. But my father’s comments weren’t negative, he likes music too. He likes fado music. When I was a child, he’d take us to watch canções ao desafio. I remember that very well. I never saw him singing, but I know he did. Last year I gave him some videotapes with canções ao desafio. I got them in Toronto, on a Portugal Day party
AMR: How often did you go Portugal? Once a year?
NF: Not that often. I spent whole summers there, once when I was 9, another time when I was 12. At 16 I went there alone and I spent Summer with my grandmother. Last year I went there with my mum.
AMR: Was it boring for you?
NF: Hum… when you’re a kid, you find boring many ‘adult’ things. The canções ao desafio - don’t have much going on on stage: it’s just sitting down and singing. But I always knew it was something very beautiful, with a big history. I’ve always loved the Portuguese culture, including the Azorean one, ever since I was a little child. And I was very proud.
AMR: Were you really?
NF: Yes. Because it was something different. There weren’t many Portuguese people; in Victoria there aren’t even 2000 Portuguese-descendants. In elementary school, there wasn’t any Portuguese kids. In the city there are many British people, with very white skin and light hair. I felt very different. And the others could see I was different. I’d take beans sandwiches to school.
AMR: Beans?
NF: Yes, beans. The others would take cheese and ham sandwiches. The beans was something really Portuguese. I felt that difference almost with embarrassment. But it wasn’t that really. I had my community, I found it on the church. I felt proud. And I’d come home from school, turned on the TV and I’d never see any Portuguese people. So I used to think ‘Someday I’ll be on TV so the children will see a Portuguese person’. It was a dream. So I’m always talking about Portugal and the Azorean culture.
AMR: What was the social level of your friends at school? Did their parents work hard?
NF: No. I remember when I was in 1st grade, the teacher asked us what were our parents’ jobs. Each one of us spoke. When I said ‘my mum is a cleaning lady’: they looked at me with a surprise look. I grew up on the washing machines room at the Motel! I had lots of respect for my parents and I didn’t find it strange that my mum did the cleaning and my dad worked with his hands.
AMR: Being someone who worked a lot in the past is also part of the American dream.
NF: My life wasn’t really difficult; we always had what we needed. But yes, the USA likes the American dream concept, a nice dream, a good story. My story is interesting. I talk about those subjects because the Portuguese culture is part of my music, the Portuguese universe is my inspiration. If it didn’t, I wouldn’t talk about Portugal so much.
AMR: You’ve always had everything, but you got used to work. For 8 summers you helped your mother making the beds at the motel.
NF: Yes, I always worked in the summer.
AMR: You probably preferred to go to the beach or to the pool.
NF: I worked to have the money to travel. My parents made us very responsible at an early age. At the age of 12, 13 we had to work to buy the stuff we wanted: clothes, trips. But it was difficult, 7 o’clock in the morning, Saturday, «pum pum pum», ‘it’s time to go to work’.
AMR: How old were you when you began working?
NF: 12 years old. At 17 I worked for the whole summer to pay for the ticket to Toronto. I stayed there for a year, worked from 9 am to 5 pm at an alarm company. The job was really boring, worse than cleaning! I used the money to pay for the recordings of my band at that time (Nelstar) and the ticket to Europe. )
AMR: How was that summer in Europe?
NF: I went to Madrid, Barcelona, San Sebastian, Paris, London. I travelled for 5 weeks. Then, I came back to Victoria, went to University and enrolled in creative writing. Throughout that year I also worked with my mom. And I was tired of it! Ah, I thought it was over, the work at the Robin Hood Motel, oh, when is it gonna end?’ And you know what? Inside of me, I still think someday I’ll be cleaning rooms at the Robin Hood Motel.
AMR: Really?
NF: Working there is part of my imaginary. It was the story of Cinderella, cleaning and dreaming. But I didn’t want to be a star. I thought about making albums: about the music, the lyrics, the instruments.
AMR: So you’re saying you’re afraid things will go back?
NF: Nothing remains forever. So it’s important to live the moment. So I invited my family to go the Junos, in Toronto.
AMR: You were nominated for 6 categories.
NF: I want to be seen. I have lots of faith in my talent, in what my spirit has to give. I believe I’ll be making music, that I’ll be successful in music. I don’t know about the rest. There’s always stuff that I have to remember: In this career there are so many false things and people are so real… the tv is false. The interviews can be false. This one isn’t! (laughs)
AMR: Thank you.
NF: The media is really powerful. There are rules: make a happy face, you can’t be boring…
AMR: Is that what the managers tell you?
NF: My managers are very honest with me, they don’t hide anything. I’m learning a lot about promotion. I didn’t know almost anything. It’s so different when you’re dreaming…
AMR: What’s the big difference?
NF: You imagine the applause, the passion for the writing. You don’t imagine the work. I’m very perfectionist. ‘War’ is with me! Nelly wants to be perfect, in the promotion, on the interviews, everything. High expectations.
AMR: The expectations are yours, to start with.
NF: Yes, I’m the worst.
AMR: How different is it when you give an interview in Portuguese? Would it be different if you spoke in English?
NF: Yes. I’m more honest when I speak Portuguese. Because I don’t have as much vocabulary as I have in English, I only say the truth, I don’t have many words to go around the subjects. I limit myself to the actual facts.
AMR: You think in English, Portuguese is your second language.
NF: I want to spend a period in Lisbon and in S. Miguel so I can improve my Portuguese. Maybe when I finish the promotion of this CD. Romantically I’ve always wanted to live in Portugal, I like the European style of living. I’d like to come in a few years.
AMR: One side is your dad’s and the other is your mum’s.
NF: Yes. My dad’s side is about thinking, writing; it belongs to the islands. My mum’s side is about sharing. I don’t know which one I prefer. Maybe the strongest passion is about writing, to tell you the truth. I may wanna try writing books, having a more calm life, in, say, 10 years. And more politics too. (My brother and sister are involved in political subjects, my brother is a socialist). Before I was 17 I didn’t even know my parents’ country was under the fascist power! I was interested in studying the history of Portugal, to know who I am.
AMR: Study the roots to understand better who you are.
NF: Yes. And I love the idea of revolution. It’s so cool. Don’t you think? When I was 16-17 I was in Portugal and I found a very artistic environment, the modern Portuguese music. That was when I was even more proud to be Portuguese. I found out that being Portuguese isn’t only about canções ao desafio. There’s a movement of modernity.
AMR: How can a 22 year old girl be so confident?
NF: Music gives me that confidence. I’ve played instruments. I’ve sang. I’ve danced. I’ve always heard nice words of support from teachers, friends, family. ‘You’re very talented, you’ve got to do it as your career.’
AMR: Were you looked upon as the prodigious little girl?
NF: I was the perfect little girl. (laughs) Since I was very little. But when I was 13-14 I was very interested in having fun with my girlfriends!
AMR: Did your parents allow you to go out at night?
NF: For my sister it was more difficult, she’s older. I’d escape from the window. I was never caught! My dad wouldn’t let me bring my boyfriends home; but he would let my sister. It was also about me being perfect, being the princess. ‘Nobody touches Nelly’. My mother used to call me all these baby names… I always replied ‘I’m not a baby!’
AMR: Do you have a boyfriend?
NF: I’ve had a boyfriend. He was a Portuguese immigrant from Lourinhã. We broke up in September.
AMR: Do you have time to date?
NF: No. And, to tell you the truth, I’m afraid of love. I travel a lot, and if I fall in love, my life would be about missing him. I’m better off this way, free, single. But of course I want a family. If God allows it.
AMR: What kind of relation do you have with your family nowadays?
NF: We have a more mature relation. They respect me, they see I work a lot. People are what they are; it’s a result of their education, of what they naturally are. I think I was born this way, being responsible and all. Sometimes I think my fate is already written. And my fate is making the others happy with my music. That’s all.
AMR: And now you’re living the dream of all your family.
NF: I think that’s it. But my grandmother doesn’t like me to be on tour, that I travel so much, that I meet so many guys. When she saw the video-clip (ILAB), they were all sitting around the TV at the kitchen… you know that part where there are thousands of people? She saw that part and she said: ‘In front of all those boys, with her tummy uncovered!’ (laughs) To tell you the truth, my grandmother is proud, but she doesn’t understand my life.
AMR: Are your parents afraid that you change?
NF: Maybe so. Maybe they are afraid that I become too different from them.
AMR: Are you afraid of becoming too different from the life you had?
NF: Yes I do, I’m afraid of becoming foreign. I don’t want to be different. I don’t have anything else, do you understand? Only my family. People don’t have anything if they don’t have their family. I think that’s about true love. To be without it? I don’t think I could…
