Nelly Kim Furtado is a Canadian singer-songwriter, actress, as well as a record producer. She was born on December 2, 1978 in Victoria, British Columbia and was raised as a Roman Catholic. Her parents were Maria Manuela and Antonio Jose Furtado. Nelly’s siblings were named Michael Anthony and Lisa Anne.

When Nelly was at the age of four, she started to sing and perform in Portuguese. She was able to play musical instruments at the age of nine and began writing songs when she was 12 years old. When Nelly visited her sister Lisa Anne in Toronto, she met Tallis Newkrik, a member of the hip hop group Plains of Fascination. She became the vocals in the track “Waitin’ 4 The Streets” under the album “Join the Ranks’ in 1996. Furtado formed a trip hop duo with Newkrik. However, she felt the style does not represent her personality which led her in leaving the group.

In the year 1997, Nelly performed in the Honey Jam talent show where she got the attention of Gerald Eaton of “The Philosopher Kings”. Eaton and the other Kings member Brian West assisted Furtado to make a demo. The recorded demos led her in dealing with the DreamWorks Records in the year 1999. Her first single was entitled “Party’s Just Begun (Again)”.

Her debut album “Whoa, Nelly!” was released in October 2000 by Eaton and West. The hit singles include “I’m Like a Bird”, “Turn off the Light”, “..On the Radio (Remember the Days)”. The album earned four Grammy nominations in the year 2002 while her debut single won the Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. Maclean’s magazine revealed that Furtado’s debut album had sold six million copies worldwide as of August 2006.

The second album of Nelly was entitled “Folklore”, it was released on November 2003. The album consist of the singles “Powerless (Say What You Want), “Try”, “Childhood Dreams”, and “ Forca”. The third album was released in June 2006 which was entitled “Loose”. The album was mixed with the genres R&B, hip hop, and from the 1980s music. Her single “Promiscuous” became her first number one single in the United States while the track “Maneater” reached the top spot in the United Kingdom. The song “Say it Right” is the most successful song of Furtado because it became successful in Europe and in the United States. It is also her second number one hit. The fourth album of Furtado is a Spanish album entitled “Mi Plan”. It has twelve tracks that are all Spanish. The album is composed of tracks entitled “Manos Al Aire”, “Mas”, “Mi Plan”, and “Bajo Otra Cruz”. Furtado won the Latin Grammy Award under the category for Best Female Pop Vocal Album for the song “Mi Plan”. She is considered to be the first Canadian to win a Latin Grammy Award.

On July 2, 2011, she made a new track entitled “Mystery” for her upcoming album. It was scheduled to be released in the Spring 2012. The target producers were The Neptunes, Timbaland, Ryan Tedder, Rodney Jerkins, and Tiesto.

Furtado listens to several music genres such as R&B, hip hop, trip hop, and drum and bass. She also has various music influences like TLC, De La Soul, Oasis, Radiohead, and Beck. Her biggest influence was the feminist punk folk singer Ani DiFranco.

Nelly Furtado Photo Gallery