I was a part of that, and it was such a positive thing for me. We had a lot of different people who would have DJ nights and spin and rap and write rhymes and graffiti.
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"Even though we were in a small city like Victoria, we had our own hip-hop scene. On the Radio (Remember the Days)" is "a tribute to suburban hip-hop culture, something that I feel is a phenomenon of our times," Furtado says. Her current Hype Williams-directed video for ". "But as I got older, I connected with kids whose parents were from India or China or Africa or Latin America, probably because we had similar family values and working-class backgrounds, as well as different cultural experiences."Īs a teenager, she perfected her trombone technique ("I was in a Portuguese marching band and my school's concert and jazz bands") while also immersing herself in hip-hop. "There weren't many Portuguese kids in my school," Furtado says. Furtado's parents - her father was a stonemason, her mother a chambermaid - had emigrated from the Azores islands in the mid-'60s. Luckily, Victoria offered both a supportive environment and multi-culti influences. "I started to hang out with the hip-hop kids and write rhymes, and I recognized my own artistry a bit more," she says. Even now when I ask myself why I do this, that's pretty much what's at the heart of it all."įurtado did the folkloric thing until she was around 12. "They smiled when I sang, and I felt, wow, I'm making people happy, making people feel good with my voice and that was worth more than anything else.
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"There was a connection that I felt with the audience," Furtado recalls.
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The reason Furtado was on stage at that tender age? She was celebrating her family's cultural heritage at neighborhood festivals and community events, singing Portuguese folk songs with her mom or singing alone to her own ukulele accompaniment. "From the first time I walked on a stage when I was about 4, I kinda had a vision that I'd be doing this, that I'd be playing for thousands of people, not 100 or 200," she explains. Furtado will tell you this is exactly what she had in mind while growing up in Victoria, British Columbia. Which, in fact, Furtado is, with her sparrowlike energy and soaring trajectory.įurtado may have titled her debut "Whoa, Nelly!," but that hasn't stopped the album from selling more than 4 million copies worldwide or the 23-year-old Furtado from galloping into the winner's circle, recently adding a Grammy for best female pop vocal performance (for "Bird") to a fistful of Junos, Canada's version of the Grammys.įurtado's arrival was duly noted on a "GRAMMY-LICIOUS" cover of Entertainment Weekly, where she, Alicia Keys and India.Arie were portrayed as "Pop's Prized Young Superstars." The story acknowledged the unprecedented presence of strong young women - the three had 17 Grammy nominations and almost 15 million albums sold - and suggested solidarity in the tradition of "Sisterhood Is Powerful" (this was before Keys went on to win five Grammys and India.Arie was shut out). Which was, of course, the name of her song - "I'm Like a Bird." WHEN we first met Nelly Furtado, she was floating like a bird in her video, over a wilderness of Jeffrey pine, white fir and open meadow near California's Mount Pinos.