Nelly Furtado first appeared on the music scene with the release of her incredible debut album ‘Whoa Nelly!’ back in 2000. Tracks like ‘Maneater’ and ‘Promiscuous’ stamped Furtado on the 00’s music scene. Her Timbaland-produced sound became a format that saw many acts follow suit in the following years (queue Britney Spears’ ‘Blackout’ album in 2007).
Nelly’s album ‘Loose’ housed the aforementioned hits ‘Maneater’, ‘Promiscuous’ as well as ‘Say It Right’. The album itself was one of the biggest albums of 2006, and to date has sold over 12 million copies worldwide. But that’s over 10 years ago… where did Furtado go? Well, the answer is she didn’t really go anywhere.
Since Furtado’s debut in 2000 to her peak in 2006 to subsequent releases such as 2012’s ‘Spirit Indestructible’, her influence on the music industry has never left. Furtado, a Latin-Canadian, is one of the pioneers of modern Latin artists creating music that isn’t sectioned into just ‘Latin’ or ‘Latin-pop’. Nelly Furtado became a household name in mainstream pop and R&B, enabling modern acts such as Camilla Cabello, Demi Lovato and Selena Gomez to be able to thrive.
Furtado has sonically diversified from each subsequent musical product, jumping from the aforementioned pop/R&B ‘Loose’ to the EDM/R&B styling of ‘Spirit Indestructable’, and now to her latest release ‘The Ride’. ‘The Ride’, produced by John Congleton (who has famously worked with acts such as St Vincents Annie Clark), sees Furtado take a more indie route with her sonic sound.
With this new sonic sound comes new themes that Furtado is attempting to cover. One of them being the insecurities felt as a successful performer in the limelight. These themes come to fruition on a record that’s released over 17 years since the release of her debut ‘Whoa Nelly!’. The age gap of the releases sees the now 38 year old Furtado dealing with these new themes with maturity and most of all… honesty.
‘The Ride’ is the next stop on Furtado’s ever-changing sonic wheel of sound, and I cannot wait to see what’s after this.
Buy/stream Nelly Furtado’s new album ‘The Ride’ here.
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