Nelly Kim Furtado is a Canadian singer and songwriter. She has sold over 45 million records, including 35 million in album sales worldwide, making her one of the most successful Canadian artists.
Critics have noted Furtado's musical versatility and experimentation with genres.
real name: Nelly Kim Furtado
labels: DreamWorks Records, Geffen Records, Mosley Music Group, Interscope Records, Universal Music Latin Entertainment
genres: pop music, rhythm and blues, traditional folk music, hip-hop, Latin music, folk music, contemporary R&B
awards: Commander of the Order of Prince Henry, Canada's Walk of Fame, Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, Latin Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Album, NRJ Music Award for International Revelation of the Year
plays: guitar, keyboard instrument, piano, bass guitar, ukulele, trombone, voice
Facts from Wikidata and Discogs, free to use.
Furtado was born on December 2, 1978, in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. Her Portuguese parents, António José Furtado and Maria Manuela Furtado, were born on São Miguel Island in the Azores and had immigrated to Canada in the late 1960s. Nelly was named after Soviet gymnast Nellie Kim. Her elder siblings are Michael Anthony and Lisa Anne. They were raised Catholic. At age 4, she began performing and singing in Portuguese. Furtado's first public performance was when she sang a duet with her mother at a church on Portugal Day. She began playing musical instruments at the age of nine, learning the trombone, ukulele and, in later years, the guitar and keyboards. At the age of 12, she began writing songs, and as a teenager, she performed in...
After graduating from Mount Douglas Secondary School in 1996, she moved to Toronto to live with her sister. There, she got a full-time job at an alarm company. Later, she 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". 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. She left the group and planned to move back home.
"I'm Like a Bird" is a song by Canadian singer-songwriter Nelly Furtado. It was written by Furtado and produced by Gerald Eaton and Brian West for her debut studio album, Whoa, Nelly! (2000).
Inspired by her first serious relationship in her early twenties, the folk-pop song reflects her experiences of isolation and emotional uncertainty while living alone in Los Angeles. Composed largely on guitar, much of the track was written in a brief, inspired session, which Furtado later described as an unexpected creative breakthrough.
"I'm Like a Bird" was written by Furtado and produced by Gerald Eaton and Brian West. The song was inspired by Furtado's first serious relationship in her early twenties. At the time, she was living alone in Los Angeles while completing Whoa, Nelly!, having previously recorded much of it in Canada. The isolation she experienced, combined with feelings of emotional uncertainty within the relationship, informed the song's themes of independence and vulnerability. Furtado composed much of "I'm Like a Bird" on guitar after earlier songwriting attempts that day proved unsuccessful, with much of it completed in "in like 20 minutes." She later described its creation as an unexpected breakthrough that emerged from a period of creative and personal...
"I'm Like a Bird" is composed common time in the key of B♭ major. The song moves at 90 beats per minute, and Furtado's voice spans around two octaves, from F3 to F5. It is written in verse-chorus form, with a bridge before the third chorus.
"I'm Like a Bird" received widespread acclaim from music critics. Timothy Mark from NME described "I'm Like a Bird" as "naggingly infectious" with an urban-influenced feel and praised Furtado's distinctive voice, comparing it to a mix of Erykah Badu and Björk, while noting its memorable quality despite somewhat whimsical lyrics. Rolling Stone critic James Hunter found that "I'm Like a Bird" was a "sad love song that flies off into pop gorgeousness," while Slant Magazine's Sal Cinquemani called the song "irresistible." David Browne from Entertainment Weekly noted that the song "takes the old 'it's not you, it's me' stance on breaking up a relationship, but the song [...] leaps from a seesawing orchestral intro into a shimmery flow." In a...
The music video for "I'm Like a Bird" was directed by Francis Lawrence, and features heavy use of CGI. The video begins in the sky where the camera slowly pans down onto Furtado, who is lying in the grass. It then shows her singing on a tree trunk in mid-air. In the chorus she gets up and starts singing to the camera while birds are flying around her. The second verse shows her sitting in mid-air in a forest, while singing to the camera. The chorus consists of flashes of Furtado singing in mid-air, again, while leaning on the tree trunk. During the bridge she is singing to a bug while her eyes change colour, which changes the bug's color accordingly. The conclusion of the video shows her falling backwards from a branch into a crowd as she...