Nelly Furtado

Nelly Furtado captivated audiences in her native Canada and abroad with a unique pop sound shaped by R&B, folk, trip-hop and Latin music.

Furtado, the child of Portuguese parents, began writing original songs at age 12, and after graduating high school she relocated to Toronto, where she befriended Tallis Newkirk, a member of the hip-hop group Plains of Fascination, and contributed vocals to their 1996 album Join the Ranks. Furtado and Newkirk formed a short-lived trip-hop duo, Nelstar, the following year; from there, she recorded a solo demo produced by Philosopher Kings members Gerald Eaton and Brian West, catching the attention of DreamWorks Records A&R exec Beth Halper, and in 1999 released her first single, "Party's Just Begun (Again)."

Furtado's debut LP Whoa, Nelly! followed in late 2000. Its lead single "I'm Like a Bird" eventually peaked at number nine on the Billboard Hot 100, but it was an even bigger hit internationally: it was the eighth-most-played song on Canadian radio in 2001, winning the Juno Award for Single of the Year, and reached number one in Portugal as well as number two in Australia and New Zealand. "I'm Like a Bird" went on to win the 2002 Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance and was nominated for Song of the Year, losing out to Alicia Keys' "Fallin'."
Furtado's third album, 2006's Loose, sold more than 10 million copies worldwide on the strength of the hit singles "Promiscuous" (featuring Timbaland), "Maneater," "Say It Right" and "All Good Things (Come to an End)." Furtado also scored with "Broken Strings," a duet with James Morrison that topped European charts in 2008, and her first Spanish-language effort, 2009's Mi Plan, won a Latin Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Album. Furtado launched her own label, Nelstar Entertainment, to release 2017's The Ride, and in 2023 she teamed with Australian DJ and producer Dom Dolla for "Eat Your Man," her first single in more than five years.