Nelly Furtado
As it’s a pretty common among the majority of world-renowned singers, Canadian singer, producer and songwriter Nelly Furtado has loved music since her early childhood. Her passion was noticed by her parents for the first time when little Nelly was four-year old. At this age, she gave her first stage performance (she sang a duet with his mother). When she was twelve Nelly Furtado wrote her first song and began dreaming about the great future that lied ahead of her.
She mastered practically any musical instrument with great ease. In high school and college she played the trombone and in her spare time - ukulele, a tiny Hawaiian 4-string guitar. Nelly dreamed about getting a synthesizer and recording equipment. In addition to learning and writing songs, she also took lessons in singing and mastered her dancing skills. In a word, she was carefully and responsibly preparing for showing her talents to the world.
She made her first appearance at the age of sixteen. During a trip to Portugal she took part in an interesting musical tradition of the "spontaneous singing", when everyone could get on stage, pick up a microphone and start improvising on the go, singing anything that your heart desires. Since that time Nelly Furtado became a true fan of hip-hop and rhythm and blues, she understood, as she thought, the very essence of hip-hop music. The impressions from the Portugal trip gave her a powerful impetus for self-improvement and further development of her musical talents.
However, Nelly Furtado did not limit her interests to hip-hop and similar genres only. At the age 17 she went to Toronto and tried her hand at being a member of a little-known musical band for the first time, and after awhile, she got carried away by the good old British rock - calm and melodic. Nelly took up the guitar, which sounded as good as any other musical instrument in her hands. In her creative tossing from one musical style to another, from classical to trendy sound experiments, Nelly Furtado has eventually discovered the colorful and diverse world of electronic music, where you can create virtually anything.
In 1997, the 18-year-old girl expressed a desire to participate in the vocal competition. Despite the fact that she won no prizes there, her performance didn't go unnoticed. And soon, Nelly met her first producers - they were Brian West and Gerald Eaton, meembers of the Philosopher Kings project. Thanks to them, Nelly Furtado managed to finish her first studio recording, and although the girl’s inconstancy regularly encouraged her to give up her lessons and break into a trip around Europe, producers of this rising star have been determined and inflexible enough. It is them who should we thank for the fact that this time Nelly carried her task to completion.
Practically locked in the studio by her closest associates, in a couple of weeks Nelly recorded some quite decent songs that were sent to the representatives of the various record companies. In 1999, the DreamWorks company has signed a contract with her and 2000 marked the release of her debut album titled «Whoa Nelly!». Wisely promoted single «Like a Bird» from that album became Nelly’s hallmark in the world of show business. Video shot for this song made her quite a recognizable artist. The single made it to at least ten U.S. charts and even hit the Billboard’s “hot hundred”. Following the U.S., Britain was conquered, followed by Portugal and Canada, in which the single launched from the second position right away. Another song from the album - the single titled «Turn off the Light» - was no less popular, repeating the success of the previous song and securing Nelly Furtado’s popularity.
The girl became one of the youngest performers, who had the honor to perform at the major concerts and become a favorite of such masters of the world stage as Elton John and «U2». In 2001 Nelly received her well-deserved Grammy award for the song “Like a Bird”. It was followed by collaboration with the most famous acts of the world pop scene and turned Nelly Furtado into a star, whose brilliance does not fade to this day.
