Nelly Furtado finds fame in contradictions

ROSS RAIHALA, THE OLYMPIAN

Originally published Friday, January 25, 2002

Although the 21st century is still young, it looks like Nelly Furtado may well be the first truly original new- millennium star.

A Canadian by way of Portugal, the 23-year-old singer/songwriter plays guitar, ukulele and trombone and sings in English, Portuguese and Hindi. She's a Lilith Fair veteran who also hit the road last summer with Moby's Area: One package tour.

And despite her somewhat unclassifiable nature -- Is she pop? Hip-hop? R&B? Latin? -- Furtado has sold nearly 2 million copies of her debut album "Whoa, Nelly!" in this country, and just as many abroad.

As Furtado told one reporter last year: "I'm a bundle of contradictions."

Indeed.

This is a woman who claims Paula Abdul, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Kris Kross, Radiohead and Simon and Garfunkel as equal influences. She taught herself how to play guitar by working out the chords to Oasis' "Wonderwall."

Critics have echoed Furtado's confessed contradictions with guarded but ultimately positive reviews.

Entertainment Weekly said she "sets herself up to be the latest in a long line of Great White North punchlines" but concluded her record was "one of the year's most consistently pleasurable debuts." New Musical Express praised Furtado, but warned "she still too often confuses blandness for adult sophistication."

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Furtado's upbringing, meanwhile, was hardly bland.

Her parents met in a small Portuguese village, married and moved to Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, where Furtado was born and raised.

Brought up in a strict, Roman Catholic household, Furtado spent summers working as a chambermaid with her mother.

At the same time, Furtado still could passionately pursue her music. She began piano lessons at 4 and complained to her parents that she wasn't being taught quickly enough. Three years later, she picked up a ukulele and also began studying Portuguese folk dance.

Throughout her teen years, Furtado reinvented herself any number of times, from hip-hop girl to raver chick to drama rat to Britpop anglophile.

At 18, she entered a talent show in Toronto and found a manager in the process. She recorded a demo tape soon after, but decided she wanted to go to college and maybe backpacking in Europe before pursuing any serious musical career.

After much coaxing from the duo who produced her demos, Furtado went back into the studio for two weeks. They recorded another set of songs, which ended up landing Furtado a deal with DreamWorks Records.

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At the age of 20, Furtado hit the road for a series of Lilith Fair shows, sharing the stage with the likes of Chrissie Hynde, Sarah McLachlan and Beth Orton.

"It was like a dream," Furtado once said. "I just kept thinking, 'What am I doing here with all these seasoned pros?' "

The release of "Whoa, Nelly!" followed in October 2000. Over the next few months, Furtado's "I'm Like a Bird" single took flight on radio and MTV.

Her follow-up, "Turn Off the Light," found similar success as Furtado went on to win four Juno Awards, the Canadian equivalent of the Grammys.

Furtado explained her debut album to one Canadian journalist as such: "The music is almost always based around the lyric and melody. I think that almost dictates rhythmically where you want the music to go. I really set out to make a pop record. I write pop songs. But I think it is sprinkled with a lot of counter-culture references. It ranged from rap to hip-hop to trip-hop, house, drum and bass, and experimental and improv and jazz."

Earlier this month, Furtado was nominated for four Grammy Awards as well, including Best New Artist and Song of the Year, for "I'm Like a Bird."

She also earned a heap of press after the British edition of the magazine FHM ran an "enhanced" shot of Furtado on its cover -- and she publicly protested it.

"There I am with a shirt that has actually been digitally altered to go to just below my chest," she told BBC Radio, "with a stomach that I don't recognize, saying 'Nelly Furtado -- her sexiest shoot yet.' "

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Furtado kicks off a three-month tour Monday in her native Victoria. It stops in Seattle on Wednesday.

It will take Furtado and her band, which features a live DJ, throughout the United States and Canada. And, at least thus far, she's not complaining.

"(Touring) is what I've been waiting to do my whole life, you know? It's always been my dream to have my own band. I've always imagined sitting on the bus, reading for hours until we get to the next city. That might seem weird to some people, but I've always been a nomad at heart. I love to wander," Furtado once said.

And as for the future, Furtado has said she's ready to get back in the studio for album number two.

"The songs are just gonna be better," she told VH1. "For me, everyone makes a big deal out of the eclecticism of the sounds on my album, like the Brazilian, the world (music) and the hip-hop, but that comes naturally to me.

"What I feel is most important about record making is the actual songwriting."

Ross Raihala covers music and entertainment for The Olympian and can be reached at 360-754-5406 or OlyRoss@aol.com.

Nelly Furtado

- When: 8 p.m. Jan. 30.

- Where: The Paramount Theatre, 911 Pine St., Seattle.

- Tickets: $30.

- For information: Call Ticketmaster Northwest at 206-628-0888.

The Olympian Copyright 2002

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