Hello everyone, and welcome back to another blog post! I am enthusiastic about this week’s post because I will be writing about Nelly Furtado. Nelly is one of my favorite members of The Lydia’s Girls group. Even though she was only featured on the first album, her song, I’m like a bird, is one of my favorites. My dad says I would sing it constantly when I was little and when I was nineteen I got a little bird tattooed on my ankle in honor of that song.
Nelly was born in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada by parents who immigrated there from Portugal in the late 60s. Nelly started performing in Portuguese when she was four years old and learned many instruments such as trombone, ukulele, guitar, and keyboard. By the age of twelve, Nelly had started writing original songs. Before starting her solo career Nelly`s vocals were featured on the Hip Hop group Plains of Fascinations song Waitin’ 4 the Streets. Later on, Nelly was a part of a trip-hop duo called Nelstar, which ended up not coming together because Nelly didn’t feel like the music represented her vocals well. In 1997 she was discovered by The Philosopher Kings’ Gerald Eaton while performing at The Honey Jam talent show. Gerald and another member of the group, Brian West, helped Nelly create a demo and by 1999 she had her first deal with DreamWorks Records. Gerald and Brian continued co-producing on Nelly’s debut album released in 2000 called: Whoa, Nelly. This album was a huge success with three international singles: I’m Like A Bird, Turn Off The Light, and …On The Radio (Remember the Days). This album was said to be a new refreshing sound from the bland pop style. In 2002 Nelly released a new album called Folklore, which unfortunately did not do as well for a couple of reasons. One was because it did not have enough of the “pop” sound, and two was because the label DreamWorks Records had under-promoted it due to them being bought by Universal Music Group. Nelly released her third album, Loose, in 2006 with the help of artist Timberland. The style of music had changed to more R&B and Hip Hop, and overall it was a beneficial change because Loose is still Nelly’s most successful album yet. In 2009 Nelly decided to mix up her styles again by releasing a Spanish album: Mi Plan. This made Nelly a bigger international singer that led to many collaborations with different artists. In 2017, she released her latest album, Ride, exclusively on Spotify.
Alright, now it’s time for the song review! The opening to the song is iconic with the edited string section and the drum kit. Something that I love about this song is that it has an uplifting feeling to it. With that feeling, you wouldn’t think there would be many minor chords, but if you listen carefully you can hear lots of them. These minor chords add so much texture. There are so many instrumental elements to this song that I can’t fit them all into one blog post, but I just think it’s so cool that throughout the song you can hear little changes in the instrumental, like the keyboard, bass, and percussion. In the chorus, Nelly’s vocals really start to shine with all the extra background vocals; it makes the song feel so much stronger and adds to the power of the lyrics. In addition, the second verse is so well written, and as a songwriter, I feel like the second verse can be one of the hardest parts to write. You need to continue the story of the song while keeping the listener engaged, without repeating yourself. Nelly continues her story with the lyrics: “Your faith in me brings me to tears, even after all these years. And it pains me so much to tell, that you don’t know me that well. Though my love is rare, though my love is true.” Even though her lover believes in her and their relationship, Nelly is just a free bird never really looking to find a place to settle down. This does not mean she doesn’t love her partner any less. There is so much build-up in the bridge and then she releases it all in chorus; it gives me goosebumps every time. I could have this song on repeat all day and never get tired of it.
I hope you all have enjoyed another blog post. Please let me know if you would like to see any artists on here. I am always looking for new music to share!
Author by: Lydia MacDavid
Chief Editor: Jacob Tomeny
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