Nelly Kim Furtado (born December 2, 1978) is a Canadian singer, songwriter, record producer, and instrumentalist, who also holds Portuguese citizenship

Nelly Kim Furtado (born December 2, 1978) is a Canadian singer, songwriter, record producer, and instrumentalist, who also holds Portuguese citizenship
Early years
Nelly Furtado was named after Soviet gymnast Nellie Kim.[2] Raised in a Roman Catholic home, Furtado first sang at the age of four when she performed a duet with her mother at a church on Portugal Day. Although remaining unclear about her religious beliefs, she still affirms a belief in God, the Ten Commandments, and in avoiding the Seven Sins.[2][5] She began playing instruments at the age of nine, learning the trombone, ukulele and, in later years, the guitar and keyboard. At the age of twelve, she began writing songs,[2] and as a teenager, she performed in a Portuguese marching band.[4] Furtado has acknowledged her family as the source of her strong work ethic; she spent eight summers working as a chambermaid with her mother, who was a housekeeper in Victoria.[6] She has stated that coming from a working class background has shaped her identity in a positive way.[2][7]

The first musicians Furtado interacted with were underground rappers and DJs.[8] During a visit to Toronto the summer after eleventh grade, Furtado met Tallis Newkirk, member of the hip hop group Plains of Fascination. She contributed vocals to their 1996 album, Join the Ranks, on the track "Waitin' 4 the Streets".[9] After graduating from Mount Douglas Secondary School in 1996, she moved to Toronto. The following year, she formed Nelstar, a trip hop duo with Newkirk. Ultimately, Furtado felt the trip-hop style of the duo was "too segregated" and believed it did not represent her personality or allow her to showcase her vocal ability.[9] She left the group and planned to move back home.

Before moving, however, she performed at the 1997 Honey Jam, an "all-female urban" talent show.[9][10] Her performance attracted the attention of The Philosopher Kings singer Gerald Eaton (aka Jarvis Church), who then approached her to write with him. He and fellow Kings member Brian West helped Furtado produce a demo. She left Toronto, but returned again to record more material with Eaton and West. The material recorded during these sessions led to her 1999 record deal with DreamWorks Records.[3] Furtado's first single, "Party's Just Begun (Again)", was released that year on the Brokedown Palace: Music from the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack.

Furtado continued the collaboration with Eaton and West, who co-produced her debut album, Whoa, Nelly! which was released in October 2000.
Following the release of the album, Furtado headlined the Burn in the Spotlight Tour and also appeared on Moby's Area:One tour.
The album was an international success, supported by three international singles: "I'm like a Bird", "Turn off the Light", and "...On the Radio (Remember the Days)". It received four Grammy nominations in 2002, and her debut single won for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. Furtado's work was also critically acclaimed for her innovative mixture of various genres and sounds. Slant magazine called the album "a delightful and refreshing antidote to the army of 'pop princesses' and rap-metal bands that had taken over popular music at the turn of the millennium."[11]
The sound of the album was strongly influenced by musicians who had traversed cultures and "the challenge of making heartfelt, emotional music that's upbeat and hopeful."[12]. According to Maclean's magazine, Whoa, Nelly! had sold five million copies worldwide as of August 2006.[13]
The song "Scared of You" has portions of the song in Portuguese, while "Onde Estás" is entirely in Portuguese, reflecting Furtado's Portuguese heritage.
Furtado's third album was released in June 2006. She named it Loose after the spontaneous, creative decisions she made while creating the album.[17]
Some have labeled her a "sellout" for seemingly abandoning her folk and rock roots in favor of hip hop and R&B,while others have criticized her for attempting to "sex up" her music and appearance to sell more records.[18][19] In this album, primarily produced by Timbaland, Furtado experiments with sounds from R&B, hip hop, and 80s music.[20] She categorized the album's sound as punk-hop, described as "modern, poppy, spooky" and as having "a mysterious, after-midnight vibe... extremely visceral".[17] She attributed the youthful sound of the album to the presence of her two-year old daughter.[20] Four lead singles were released in different regions of the world: the Spanish reggaeton-influenced "No Hay Igual" (featuring Calle 13), the hip-hop "Promiscuous" (featuring Timbaland), for which she won a 2006 Billboard Music Award for Pop Single of the Year, the Latin "Te Busqué" (featuring Juanes), and the dark pop single "Maneater". Loose has become the most successful album of Furtado's career so far. It reached number-one in several countries including the United States and Canada, and it included the hit singles "Promiscuous", "Maneater", "Te Busqué", "Say It Right", and "All Good Things (Come to an End)". The album received generally positive reviews from critics,[21] with some citing the "revitalising" effect of Timbaland on Furtado's music,[22][23] and others calling it "slick, smart and surprising."[24]Nonetheless, the album has fared well on the mainstream market, especially in Canada, where the album was certified 4x platinum in May 2007.[25] In 2007, Furtado and Justin Timberlake were featured on Timbaland's single "Give It to Me",[26] which became her third number-one single in the U.S. and second in the UK. On February 16, 2007, Furtado embarked on the Get Loose Tour. She returned in March 2007 to her hometown of Victoria, British Columbia to perform a concert at the Save-On Foods Memorial Centre. In honor of her visit, local leaders officially proclaimed March 21, 2007, the first day of spring, as Nelly Furtado Day.[27] On April 1, 2007, Furtado was a performer at and host of the 2007 Juno Awards in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. She won all five awards for which she was nominated, including "Album of the Year" and "Single of the Year". Furtado appeared on stage at the Concert for Diana at Wembley Stadium in London on July 1, 2007, where she performed "Say It Right", "Maneater", and "I'm like a Bird". In 2007, Furtado, Timbaland and Justin Timberlake were featured on Lil Wayne's upcoming album Tha Carter III.[28] Furtado also appeared in the video for Nickelback's Rockstar. In September, 2007, MTV:Buzzworthy chose Furtado as the Artist of the Week, and gave an exclusive freestyle performance of "Going Away" with the Somalian-Canadian rapper K'naan.[29] On September 9, 2007, Furtado performed at the MTV Video Music Awards awards with Timbaland and Justin Timberlake, where she sang Do It mixed with The Way I Are, LoveStoned and Give It to Me. In October 2007 Furtado was nominated for three MTV Europe Music Awards, and she won the "Album of the Year" award. After Furtado's success in her third album, Loose, she is planning to release her first live DVD under the name Loose the Concert which will include her greatest hits of 2007 and 2006 as a live videos such as "Promiscuous", "Maneater", "Say It Right" and "All Good Things (Come to an End)"[30] . Loose has been used to advertise the newly released iPod classic appearing in commercials and even on the box.
On September 20, 2003 in Toronto, Furtado gave birth to a daughter, Nevis, whose father is DJ Jasper Gahunia. Furtado and Gahunia, who had been good friends for several years, remained together for four years until their breakup in 2005. Furtado told Blender magazine that they continue to be good friends and jointly share responsibility of raising Nevis.[31]
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." [32] Some considered this an announcement of bisexuality,[33] but in August 2006, she confirmed that she was "straight, but very open-minded". [34] In November 2006, Furtado revealed that she once turned down US$500,000 to pose fully clothed in Playboy.[35]