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A star is reborn |
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By Ethan Caleb » For a singer that critics were starting to dismiss as a one-album wonder, Nelly Furtado sure seems to be making a lot of waves these days.
The Victoria, BC-born singer had burst onto the music scene with a refreshingly different sound in 2000, her debut album Whoa, Nelly! charting in countries around the world and snagging her a Grammy for Best Female Vocal Pop Performance.
Songs like I'm Like A Bird and Turn Off The Light became a radio staple, and she was being hailed as the Next Big Thing from the country that gave the world stars like Celine Dion, Diana Krall and Alanis Morissette.
But as with almost any new music, time has a way of rendering it stale.
Radio DJs started playing her less often, and motherhood a couple of years later meant studio time had to take a back seat.
When she did eventually return with a new album, Folklore, it was received with less than enthusiastic reviews.
The critics were out sharpening their pencils, wondering if Furtado was just another flash in the pan, a singer destined to fade away after a promising debut.
In many ways, she did fade away, at least from the news pages.
Which is why, when she did resurface with a new album, she caught everyone by surprise with a new, sexed-up image seemingly at odds with how the public perceived her.
As far as the music went though, there was simply no argument. The album, suggestively titled Loose, went to number one in both Canada and the United States. There was nothing about the music that followed the beaten path. This was experimental sound that came off brilliantly, the confidence of the young artist in her own talent evident in every note.
Furtado herself categorized the album's sound as punk-hop, which she describes as "this modern, poppy, spooky music" and stated that "there's a mysterious, after-midnight vibe to it that's extremely visceral".
No fewer than four singles from the album made it to the charts – Promiscuous, Maneater, Say It Right, and All Good Things (Come to an End).
If ever she needed validation of how well she has bounced back, it came in the form of five Juno awards (Canada's equivalent of the Grammys) - she won every category in which she was nominated. And if that weren't enough, she also was given the honour of hosting the show, held in Saskatoon on April 1.
There certainly won't be any question of Furtado fading away again for at least a while yet. The singer won a guest-starring role in a recent episode of hit TV drama CSI: New York, and she already has another album (in Spanish) lined up for release later in 2007.
Come summer, and you'll also regularly see her in a 30-second public service commercial encouraging people to save power.
Furtado, who it seems likes to surprise, did just that when she not only responded to a Toronto school's appeal to perform in the commercial, she did it for free.
She joined the shoot at the school last month, dancing through the halls with 40 students singing her hit "Turn Off the Light" – as lights behind them turned off.
Getting the star on board seemed natural to those at Maurice Cody Public School near Bayview and Davisville Avenues, who use the Furtado hit each morning to remind students and teachers to save energy.
"We were so excited that Nelly Furtado said she would do it free of charge," said principal Judy Green. "It's a feel-good message; our little piece to help fight global warning."
Parent Cindy English, who has spearheaded numerous eco-drives at the school, approached the superstar to see if she would help spread the message outside the walls of this little grade school that has made ecology such a focus.
"It's amazing what can happen if you ask because so many people are afraid, but Nelly Furtado was a delight," said English.
Furtado, a first generation Portuguese-Canadian, recently moved to Toronto because she wanted to raise her daughter in a more culturally diverse city (Nevis is ethnically a quarter Filipino, a quarter Indian, and half Portuguese). |
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