July 29, 2024 • 16 mins
Celebrating the incredible success of her song "Love Bites", the icon Nelly Furtado chats w us for the first time on America's Dance 30! Nelly shared how the song was born w Tove Lo & SG Lewis!!
She also talked all about her new song "Corazon", what fans can expect from her upcoming album, how her resurgence has been, and how long she prepped for her incredible medley performance at the Junos.
We also got to know Nelly better w #FinkysFirsts!!
Find out about:
Follow: @AmericasDance30 on all socials!
Count down the biggest dance songs in the country every week with Brian Fink on America’s Dance 30; listen on stations around the world!
Follow: @AmericasDance30 on all socials!
Count down the biggest dance songs in the country every week with Brian Fink on America’s Dance 30; listen on stations around the world!
She also talked all about her new song "Corazon", what fans can expect from her upcoming album, how her resurgence has been, and how long she prepped for her incredible medley performance at the Junos.
We also got to know Nelly better w #FinkysFirsts!!
Find out about:
- what else she first wanted to be when she was growing up
- if using her real name was her first choice for her artist project
- her first award nominations
- the first time she heard one of her songs on the radio
Follow: @AmericasDance30 on all socials!
Count down the biggest dance songs in the country every week with Brian Fink on America’s Dance 30; listen on stations around the world!
Follow: @AmericasDance30 on all socials!
Count down the biggest dance songs in the country every week with Brian Fink on America’s Dance 30; listen on stations around the world!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
There she is. Hi, how are you?
Speaker 2 (00:04):
I'm so good.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
How are you doing? I feel like you're lying. I
don't know why are you beating? I'm just messing with you.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
Oh O good.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
It is such an honor to meet you. By the way.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
I know we're going to be talking all about love
bites and your new music in your album. But I
got to tell you that one of my favorite Nelly
Furtado songs is Powerless.
Speaker 4 (00:25):
Oh.
Speaker 5 (00:25):
That's so it kind of breaks my heart in a
way because sometimes we play it in my shows, and
then I feel like every time I don't play it,
I hear from somebody being like she should have played Powerless.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
You know, you can't make everybody happy, right, I know.
Speaker 5 (00:38):
But it's so hard because sometimes we're doing festivals and
we have like fifty minutes forty five. I always have
to choose between like a little bit of try from
Folklore or Powerless or then oh but then I can't play.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
All good things come to an end. So it's like,
you know, you can only play so many like mid tempos.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
That's why we got to have a five hour Nelly
Fertato concert. Yeah, one of our local DJs here Gemini,
did a break remix of Powerless, probably about a decade ago.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
And I want to hear it. It is so amazing.
Oh my god, I want to hear that.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
You know what, I'll send it to I yell it
and she can get it to you so you can
hear it.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Okay, thank you.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
All right, let's officially start this chat.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Counting down the biggest dance songs in the country.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
This is America's Dance thirty.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
Nellie Fertado, the Icon, Welcome to America's Dance thirty for
the first time.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
Ay, this is me.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
How are you?
Speaker 1 (01:47):
This is me? It is such an honor finally meeting you.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
Congratulations on all the success of Love Bites with Tovlo
and SG Lewis.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Thank you, very very, very very much.
Speaker 5 (01:58):
I'm happy for our little gang, our little gang of
club kids.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
Can I just tell you how awesome it is that
you're not only having a resurgence, but you're having a
resurgence in dance music.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
That is so awesome.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Takes me way back to like nineteen ninety seven.
Speaker 5 (02:13):
You know, I was that kid making dance tracks with
my friends in their basements and in Toronto, making tripop
and going to ravees and it couldn't get any better.
To be honest, to be back doing it this way,
I like, I literally I literally like dombed all and
I like Manifested Eat your Man in Philadelphia, and I
was like, dom no, no, I know, I know, you're
(02:34):
like producing stuff for me. Like he's you know, he's
got some records on my new one, but my new
album coming out.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
But like at the.
Speaker 5 (02:39):
Time, I was like, domb but also but also et cetera,
I would.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Like a song with you for the clubs. We need
a song for the rays. We need a song for
the clubs. And like he just like understood the assignment
and he had.
Speaker 4 (02:50):
This this beat that each your Man beat, and yeah,
we were in this uber stuck in Philly traffic from
downtown to the suburbs for an hour with our friend Angelie,
and the uber driver.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Was like, did you make this beat? I really like it.
Tom was left off in the back and then like
Angelie is just like, I'll e chaman devour him home.
Speaker 5 (03:12):
And I'm like, whoa, whoa, Really am I gonna just
like reference all my old songs And I'm like why not?
And so I don't know, it's just to be honest,
it's just been so fun because then you know, fast
forward and like us post Lollapalooza playing it in a club,
you know, in Chicago and being like, damn, we really
did this thing, or in the BISA last summer or Cotela.
(03:35):
You know, it's just been surreal and I'm so happy
and that the thread you know, with like he has
friends with SG Lewis, but like me and S she Lewis.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
I met S she Lewis around the same time Don
Metes she Lewis. We all performed together that night.
Speaker 5 (03:49):
My first show in five years in Australia called binder
Be on the Valley Festival.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
I did the Blue bicy for.
Speaker 5 (03:54):
Remix with him to say it right on stage, it
was it's just been this kis met and commune and
I just couldn't be happier.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
Because it's so real and I've been so inspired by the.
Speaker 5 (04:03):
Dance community and the DJ community because it's so much
about the people. It's so much about the actual music
and the connections and the support and the organic love
of music and it's just so my vibe.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
It's my vibe.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
Well, it just makes me so happy and warm insight
to hear all that because it's so great seeing you
in the scene and having so much success. Now we're
going to be talking all about love Bites and your
new album coming up, but first, let's get to know
Nelly Fertado a little better with Finky's first.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
My brain's a wild place, so this is.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
Going to be very interesting me.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
Now, I love finding out the origin story of artists. PS.
It is great chatting with a fellow Canadian. I was
actually born in Montreal.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Oh do you speak French?
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Empetpa, I've forgotten. I have forgotten a lot.
Speaker 5 (05:00):
I've been Portuguese and Spanish, but I don't really know
a lot of French.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
Well, now you're showing off, so normally my first question
is when you were growing up, was music the first
thing you wanted to do?
Speaker 1 (05:12):
But you've been singing since pretty much birth, right.
Speaker 5 (05:16):
To happen, I have been, you know, my first memory
kind of channeling melodies and lyrics through my body was
I was three and they just kind of came and
I didn't understand where from, and they would make me
feel quite emotional, and they always felt like joyful, And you.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Know, we had a piano in our living room and.
Speaker 5 (05:35):
I would just spend hours just finding notes, and then
I started playing instruments and actually my first to be honest,
my first time on stage. I was only four years
old and I sang for three hundred people in my
church community, and I loved it immediately, and I just
had I had a vision.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
But when you were growing up, was there anything else
you wanted to do or was music always it?
Speaker 4 (05:57):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (05:57):
I wanted to be in the Olympics. I wanted it
to run a hundred meter. I love it, so I'd
watch the Olympics.
Speaker 5 (06:04):
I wanted to be a figure skater and I would
put my own like make my own little cards.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
With like eight out of ten ten or like like
the different like categories they have for judging it.
Speaker 4 (06:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
I wanted to be a fashion designer. I used to
like do fashion designs. Yeah, just different things that I
wanted to do. I wanted to write books, you know.
Speaker 5 (06:22):
I almost went to university for creative writing instead of
like pursuing music.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
Well, the Canadian judge would definitely hold up a ten
right now, now, are you a fast runner?
Speaker 5 (06:32):
I'm not bad, but like to be honest, like I
may like i'd be like the anchor on the B
team so I was always like I was like the
fifth fastest.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
In the crew, you know what I mean, the fifth
fastest in the class. I wasn't quite fast enough.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
But the anchor is is probably the most important part.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Four hundred meters actually, which is really good. To build
your stamina to four hundred meters tough. You have to
have stamina to run fast for four hundred meters.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
How did I never know this about Nellie? Now?
Speaker 3 (07:01):
Was using your real name always the first choice when
you were deciding on your artist solo project, because I
know you started as a duo when you were first
starting out in music, But I did kind of.
Speaker 5 (07:12):
Yeah. I had a partner, like a producer partner, and
his name was Tallas Newkirk, and he had a hip
hop group but he also produced. And yeah, I was
like seventeen years old, like spending my checks I got
from doing customer service and an alarm company wireless alarms,
which they break a lot, and so I.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
Was really busy in customer service.
Speaker 5 (07:32):
But in that time, I would take the streetcar in
Toronto downtown and he had the studio, Like I would
pay for studio time.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
And I would just record these trip hop tracks.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
But when you were deciding on the solo project.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
Were you always gonna go with your real name or
were there other choices?
Speaker 1 (07:47):
Oh?
Speaker 5 (07:48):
Yeah, yeah, I thought maybe like Nelly just my first name,
or I mean I almost called this album Kim a
new album, which is my middle name, but I didn't
because then I can't use it anymore.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
But but uh, no, I always wanted to use my
real name.
Speaker 5 (08:03):
I mean sometimes I'm like, oh, it would have been
cool to have a pseudonym, but it's fine.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
I'm out of it. You know, it's a Portuguese name.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
And it's such a great name. I mean, Nelly Fritado
is a beautiful name.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Thank you very much.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
Now, if I mentioned all of your awards and nominations,
we would be here until twenty twenty five. But you've
got a Grammy, You've got a Latin Grammy, You've got
a Juno, which is pretty much a Canadian Grammy.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
Do you remember your first award or nomination?
Speaker 5 (08:43):
Yeah, I was nominated for the Juno a bunch of
Juno Awards, which is like the Canadian version of the Grammys.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
So I was a kid.
Speaker 5 (08:50):
I was like bright eyed and bushytailed. I was like
twenty one or something. And I won all these junos.
It was mind blowing. I just saw the photos of
like me and my family twenty one in my little, tiny, tiny,
tiny one of my first apartments, and my whole family
has newspapers and they're holding them lovel like I'm on
the cover.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
Of all the newspaper and I thought, wow. I saw
those pictures and I said, Wow, that's really mind bland.
That's really cool that happened. That was that was exciting.
Speaker 5 (09:14):
Yeah, I've been doing this a long. I've been doing
this twenty five years. This is my seventh album. I'm
putting out in September. I worked on it for four years,
so I take my time. But it's always worth it. It's
always worth it.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
Man, that's so iconic.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
Now you have got some amazing songs that have been
on the radio. But do you remember the first time
ever hearing one of your songs.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
On the radio?
Speaker 4 (09:34):
Uh?
Speaker 2 (09:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (09:35):
I was in that tiny apartment that had no windows
in the bedroom, which was good because I barely slept
because I was always on the road touring. It's about Yeah,
it was about twenty twenty one, and I had a
clock radio remember those.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
And.
Speaker 6 (09:48):
I would wake up to the to the radio and
one one day, it could have been afternoon, I wouldn't
know because the room had no windows, but I the
alarms came on and it was I'm like a bird.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
Like right then, Yeah, wow, that is kismid. Yeah, and
I heard on the radio that is unbelievable. What did it?
Speaker 5 (10:07):
That was snake of going online and reading comments.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
And then I was like it was fun for like
five minutes.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
And Nelly Furtado has never checked another comment since. Yeah,
let's talk about this smash love bites with Tovlowe and
SG Lewis. You know, I got a chance to chat
with both of them a couple of months ago, and
they were both mind blown that they got the opportunity
to work with such an icon like you.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
How they're on fire right now.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
I'm telling you.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
They're making fire music every day.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
That was their words, not mine. How was this song born?
Speaker 5 (10:46):
Just out of again this community and connection that I
found that kind of really was the thread in making.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
My new album s.
Speaker 5 (10:54):
G Lewis reached out to me a couple of years
ago and said, you know, do you want to make
music with me?
Speaker 2 (11:00):
And so we started corresponding text message. We finally got to.
Speaker 5 (11:04):
Perform one of my songs, All Good Things Come to
an End together at the Beyond the Valley Festival in
Australia on New Year's Eve a few years back, and
I started a song with him and we had it
had a cool vibe and I thought he.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
Had forgotten about it, but he sent it back to me.
Speaker 5 (11:18):
One random day a year later and he was like, hey, like,
I really like this vibe on the verses, but like
I changed the beat, but like, do you want like
one of my friends to give a go at the chorus?
Speaker 2 (11:28):
And I said, only if it's so blow and he's
like okay, and she.
Speaker 5 (11:32):
Got back to him immediately, and we created this cute
little thread. Like we're still chatting on our little thread
about like it BISA and fun stuff and just supporting
each other.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
Really, but it's a sexy song and no one can
kind of bring.
Speaker 5 (11:46):
That unbridled, sexy, badass, free girl energy like Tove.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
I just think she's so.
Speaker 5 (11:53):
Singular in that way, and so she really brings that
out in me, you know, And I think it was
fun to feel free in that way.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
Like at the video shoot, we actually forgot we were
shooting a video, but we sing we were like, oh,
aren't we at the club and then like it was
like it was pretty transcendental.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
Now your new song corizone, I saw that you've been
working on it for two years.
Speaker 5 (12:14):
Yeah, it took three cities like just to get it right,
because you know, I got the real bombas stereo on
the track plane, all the beautiful Colombian instruments, and they
did that after I sold out gig in Toronto, like
we all got in like an uber that was way
too small for all of us and got to the
studio and they were tired, but they pushed through and
they recorded till four in the morning, and then Lilianna
(12:35):
finished her verse in New York.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
You know, a few months.
Speaker 5 (12:38):
Later T Minus started the track with just a beat
and we started what would become what it will become,
But it's just a journey.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
I think that I'm aware that it kind of has
this fusion, and.
Speaker 5 (12:47):
I think I think part of my signature sound is fusion,
and I think that is important to me to get
it right.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
Very proud of it. But they're probably no other songs
like it on the album. There's just every song is
different on this new album. It's like there's no thread.
That's why I called it seven like a fashion collection.
Speaker 3 (13:02):
And it's coming out in September. Can't wait for that?
What can fans expect?
Speaker 5 (13:06):
Uh? It's honestly, it's a treat. It's it's like just
meant to trip out to and escape. Just portals, you know,
just portals of like melody and music that can move
you and you can move your body to, but also
hopefully move your soul a little bit too, and get
lost emotionally in it.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
Well, can't wait to hear it in September. It is
so awesome that you've got it coming out now. Complete
side note, but when I was deep diving, I came
across the Medley video you did at the twenty twenty
four Junos of all your greatest hits. I don't know
what I'm going through hormone wise, but when you sat
on the piano and started singing I'm like a Bird,
I legit started tearing up like it was so good,
(13:46):
Oh my god, it was so good.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
We nailed it? Then?
Speaker 1 (13:51):
That was your mission going in? Can I make Brian
Fink cry?
Speaker 2 (13:55):
Wanted people to cry? Brian cry? Well? Was it about? That?
Speaker 4 (14:00):
Was it?
Speaker 2 (14:00):
The beautiful strings?
Speaker 5 (14:01):
This beautiful string arranger Owen Palette, who's also featured on
my album did the Strings.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
He's so good now.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
I'm sure performing and doing your songs is like muscle
memory for you, But when you're doing something completely different
like that, like a medley of your greatest hits, how
many times do you need to rehearse that so you
don't forget what song is next.
Speaker 5 (14:23):
We made it look easy, but it was difficult. It's like,
make it look easy, but spend four months, so like,
we spent a long time.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
Getting it right. I was like, very very specific. I was.
Speaker 5 (14:37):
I work with one of my collaborators, Hirag, really talented,
and he got it from the beginning, getting all the mashups.
We even included this really cool TikTok mashup of say
It Right, like we just I love like remix culture,
love nostalgia culture.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
I just wanted to bring it all together. I've been
playing a lot of shows, so I understood the value
of that.
Speaker 5 (14:56):
I really understood the value of taking people back, you
know what I mean, taking them back, taking them forward.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
That's why I.
Speaker 5 (15:00):
Wanted also to give Dolla's remix of give It to
Me a Little Love in that medley and say, you
know what, let's take it to the future as well.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
Here, let's put each your man. Let's give it a
little bit of that Dom Dollar remix of give it
to Me, like, that's a vibe. I think I put
that one in. There's that in there.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
I think it was there. If it's not, I'll cut
it out.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
That's so fat. Yeah, we did it.
Speaker 3 (15:22):
For anybody that hasn't seen it, do yourself a favor
and search it on YouTube.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
It is such an amazing performance.
Speaker 3 (15:29):
Nellie for Tado, Congratulations on the album coming out. Congratulations
on all the shows you've got going on right now.
Nellie for Tado, it is such an honor finally chatting
with you.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
Thank you for your time on America's Dance thirty.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
My god, I love talking to you. This was really fun.
Dance Live Forever America's Dancer.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
Counting down the biggest dance songs in the country.
Speaker 5 (15:56):
America's Dance thirty
There she is. Hi, how are you?
Speaker 2 (00:04):
I'm so good.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
How are you doing? I feel like you're lying. I
don't know why are you beating? I'm just messing with you.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
Oh O good.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
It is such an honor to meet you. By the way.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
I know we're going to be talking all about love
bites and your new music in your album. But I
got to tell you that one of my favorite Nelly
Furtado songs is Powerless.
Speaker 4 (00:25):
Oh.
Speaker 5 (00:25):
That's so it kind of breaks my heart in a
way because sometimes we play it in my shows, and
then I feel like every time I don't play it,
I hear from somebody being like she should have played Powerless.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
You know, you can't make everybody happy, right, I know.
Speaker 5 (00:38):
But it's so hard because sometimes we're doing festivals and
we have like fifty minutes forty five. I always have
to choose between like a little bit of try from
Folklore or Powerless or then oh but then I can't play.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
All good things come to an end. So it's like,
you know, you can only play so many like mid tempos.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
That's why we got to have a five hour Nelly
Fertato concert. Yeah, one of our local DJs here Gemini,
did a break remix of Powerless, probably about a decade ago.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
And I want to hear it. It is so amazing.
Oh my god, I want to hear that.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
You know what, I'll send it to I yell it
and she can get it to you so you can
hear it.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Okay, thank you.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
All right, let's officially start this chat.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Counting down the biggest dance songs in the country.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
This is America's Dance thirty.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
Nellie Fertado, the Icon, Welcome to America's Dance thirty for
the first time.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
Ay, this is me.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
How are you?
Speaker 1 (01:47):
This is me? It is such an honor finally meeting you.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
Congratulations on all the success of Love Bites with Tovlo
and SG Lewis.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Thank you, very very, very very much.
Speaker 5 (01:58):
I'm happy for our little gang, our little gang of
club kids.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
Can I just tell you how awesome it is that
you're not only having a resurgence, but you're having a
resurgence in dance music.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
That is so awesome.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Takes me way back to like nineteen ninety seven.
Speaker 5 (02:13):
You know, I was that kid making dance tracks with
my friends in their basements and in Toronto, making tripop
and going to ravees and it couldn't get any better.
To be honest, to be back doing it this way,
I like, I literally I literally like dombed all and
I like Manifested Eat your Man in Philadelphia, and I
was like, dom no, no, I know, I know, you're
(02:34):
like producing stuff for me. Like he's you know, he's
got some records on my new one, but my new
album coming out.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
But like at the.
Speaker 5 (02:39):
Time, I was like, domb but also but also et cetera,
I would.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Like a song with you for the clubs. We need
a song for the rays. We need a song for
the clubs. And like he just like understood the assignment
and he had.
Speaker 4 (02:50):
This this beat that each your Man beat, and yeah,
we were in this uber stuck in Philly traffic from
downtown to the suburbs for an hour with our friend Angelie,
and the uber driver.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Was like, did you make this beat? I really like it.
Tom was left off in the back and then like
Angelie is just like, I'll e chaman devour him home.
Speaker 5 (03:12):
And I'm like, whoa, whoa, Really am I gonna just
like reference all my old songs And I'm like why not?
And so I don't know, it's just to be honest,
it's just been so fun because then you know, fast
forward and like us post Lollapalooza playing it in a club,
you know, in Chicago and being like, damn, we really
did this thing, or in the BISA last summer or Cotela.
(03:35):
You know, it's just been surreal and I'm so happy
and that the thread you know, with like he has
friends with SG Lewis, but like me and S she Lewis.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
I met S she Lewis around the same time Don
Metes she Lewis. We all performed together that night.
Speaker 5 (03:49):
My first show in five years in Australia called binder
Be on the Valley Festival.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
I did the Blue bicy for.
Speaker 5 (03:54):
Remix with him to say it right on stage, it
was it's just been this kis met and commune and
I just couldn't be happier.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
Because it's so real and I've been so inspired by the.
Speaker 5 (04:03):
Dance community and the DJ community because it's so much
about the people. It's so much about the actual music
and the connections and the support and the organic love
of music and it's just so my vibe.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
It's my vibe.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
Well, it just makes me so happy and warm insight
to hear all that because it's so great seeing you
in the scene and having so much success. Now we're
going to be talking all about love Bites and your
new album coming up, but first, let's get to know
Nelly Fertado a little better with Finky's first.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
My brain's a wild place, so this is.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
Going to be very interesting me.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
Now, I love finding out the origin story of artists. PS.
It is great chatting with a fellow Canadian. I was
actually born in Montreal.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Oh do you speak French?
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Empetpa, I've forgotten. I have forgotten a lot.
Speaker 5 (05:00):
I've been Portuguese and Spanish, but I don't really know
a lot of French.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
Well, now you're showing off, so normally my first question
is when you were growing up, was music the first
thing you wanted to do?
Speaker 1 (05:12):
But you've been singing since pretty much birth, right.
Speaker 5 (05:16):
To happen, I have been, you know, my first memory
kind of channeling melodies and lyrics through my body was
I was three and they just kind of came and
I didn't understand where from, and they would make me
feel quite emotional, and they always felt like joyful, And you.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Know, we had a piano in our living room and.
Speaker 5 (05:35):
I would just spend hours just finding notes, and then
I started playing instruments and actually my first to be honest,
my first time on stage. I was only four years
old and I sang for three hundred people in my
church community, and I loved it immediately, and I just
had I had a vision.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
But when you were growing up, was there anything else
you wanted to do or was music always it?
Speaker 4 (05:57):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (05:57):
I wanted to be in the Olympics. I wanted it
to run a hundred meter. I love it, so I'd
watch the Olympics.
Speaker 5 (06:04):
I wanted to be a figure skater and I would
put my own like make my own little cards.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
With like eight out of ten ten or like like
the different like categories they have for judging it.
Speaker 4 (06:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
I wanted to be a fashion designer. I used to
like do fashion designs. Yeah, just different things that I
wanted to do. I wanted to write books, you know.
Speaker 5 (06:22):
I almost went to university for creative writing instead of
like pursuing music.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
Well, the Canadian judge would definitely hold up a ten
right now, now, are you a fast runner?
Speaker 5 (06:32):
I'm not bad, but like to be honest, like I
may like i'd be like the anchor on the B
team so I was always like I was like the
fifth fastest.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
In the crew, you know what I mean, the fifth
fastest in the class. I wasn't quite fast enough.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
But the anchor is is probably the most important part.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Four hundred meters actually, which is really good. To build
your stamina to four hundred meters tough. You have to
have stamina to run fast for four hundred meters.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
How did I never know this about Nellie? Now?
Speaker 3 (07:01):
Was using your real name always the first choice when
you were deciding on your artist solo project, because I
know you started as a duo when you were first
starting out in music, But I did kind of.
Speaker 5 (07:12):
Yeah. I had a partner, like a producer partner, and
his name was Tallas Newkirk, and he had a hip
hop group but he also produced. And yeah, I was
like seventeen years old, like spending my checks I got
from doing customer service and an alarm company wireless alarms,
which they break a lot, and so I.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
Was really busy in customer service.
Speaker 5 (07:32):
But in that time, I would take the streetcar in
Toronto downtown and he had the studio, Like I would
pay for studio time.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
And I would just record these trip hop tracks.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
But when you were deciding on the solo project.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
Were you always gonna go with your real name or
were there other choices?
Speaker 1 (07:47):
Oh?
Speaker 5 (07:48):
Yeah, yeah, I thought maybe like Nelly just my first name,
or I mean I almost called this album Kim a
new album, which is my middle name, but I didn't
because then I can't use it anymore.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
But but uh, no, I always wanted to use my
real name.
Speaker 5 (08:03):
I mean sometimes I'm like, oh, it would have been
cool to have a pseudonym, but it's fine.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
I'm out of it. You know, it's a Portuguese name.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
And it's such a great name. I mean, Nelly Fritado
is a beautiful name.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Thank you very much.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
Now, if I mentioned all of your awards and nominations,
we would be here until twenty twenty five. But you've
got a Grammy, You've got a Latin Grammy, You've got
a Juno, which is pretty much a Canadian Grammy.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
Do you remember your first award or nomination?
Speaker 5 (08:43):
Yeah, I was nominated for the Juno a bunch of
Juno Awards, which is like the Canadian version of the Grammys.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
So I was a kid.
Speaker 5 (08:50):
I was like bright eyed and bushytailed. I was like
twenty one or something. And I won all these junos.
It was mind blowing. I just saw the photos of
like me and my family twenty one in my little, tiny, tiny,
tiny one of my first apartments, and my whole family
has newspapers and they're holding them lovel like I'm on
the cover.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
Of all the newspaper and I thought, wow. I saw
those pictures and I said, Wow, that's really mind bland.
That's really cool that happened. That was that was exciting.
Speaker 5 (09:14):
Yeah, I've been doing this a long. I've been doing
this twenty five years. This is my seventh album. I'm
putting out in September. I worked on it for four years,
so I take my time. But it's always worth it. It's
always worth it.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
Man, that's so iconic.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
Now you have got some amazing songs that have been
on the radio. But do you remember the first time
ever hearing one of your songs.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
On the radio?
Speaker 4 (09:34):
Uh?
Speaker 2 (09:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (09:35):
I was in that tiny apartment that had no windows
in the bedroom, which was good because I barely slept
because I was always on the road touring. It's about Yeah,
it was about twenty twenty one, and I had a
clock radio remember those.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
And.
Speaker 6 (09:48):
I would wake up to the to the radio and
one one day, it could have been afternoon, I wouldn't
know because the room had no windows, but I the
alarms came on and it was I'm like a bird.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
Like right then, Yeah, wow, that is kismid. Yeah, and
I heard on the radio that is unbelievable. What did it?
Speaker 5 (10:07):
That was snake of going online and reading comments.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
And then I was like it was fun for like
five minutes.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
And Nelly Furtado has never checked another comment since. Yeah,
let's talk about this smash love bites with Tovlowe and
SG Lewis. You know, I got a chance to chat
with both of them a couple of months ago, and
they were both mind blown that they got the opportunity
to work with such an icon like you.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
How they're on fire right now.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
I'm telling you.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
They're making fire music every day.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
That was their words, not mine. How was this song born?
Speaker 5 (10:46):
Just out of again this community and connection that I
found that kind of really was the thread in making.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
My new album s.
Speaker 5 (10:54):
G Lewis reached out to me a couple of years
ago and said, you know, do you want to make
music with me?
Speaker 2 (11:00):
And so we started corresponding text message. We finally got to.
Speaker 5 (11:04):
Perform one of my songs, All Good Things Come to
an End together at the Beyond the Valley Festival in
Australia on New Year's Eve a few years back, and
I started a song with him and we had it
had a cool vibe and I thought he.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
Had forgotten about it, but he sent it back to me.
Speaker 5 (11:18):
One random day a year later and he was like, hey, like,
I really like this vibe on the verses, but like
I changed the beat, but like, do you want like
one of my friends to give a go at the chorus?
Speaker 2 (11:28):
And I said, only if it's so blow and he's
like okay, and she.
Speaker 5 (11:32):
Got back to him immediately, and we created this cute
little thread. Like we're still chatting on our little thread
about like it BISA and fun stuff and just supporting
each other.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
Really, but it's a sexy song and no one can
kind of bring.
Speaker 5 (11:46):
That unbridled, sexy, badass, free girl energy like Tove.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
I just think she's so.
Speaker 5 (11:53):
Singular in that way, and so she really brings that
out in me, you know, And I think it was
fun to feel free in that way.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
Like at the video shoot, we actually forgot we were
shooting a video, but we sing we were like, oh,
aren't we at the club and then like it was
like it was pretty transcendental.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
Now your new song corizone, I saw that you've been
working on it for two years.
Speaker 5 (12:14):
Yeah, it took three cities like just to get it right,
because you know, I got the real bombas stereo on
the track plane, all the beautiful Colombian instruments, and they
did that after I sold out gig in Toronto, like
we all got in like an uber that was way
too small for all of us and got to the
studio and they were tired, but they pushed through and
they recorded till four in the morning, and then Lilianna
(12:35):
finished her verse in New York.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
You know, a few months.
Speaker 5 (12:38):
Later T Minus started the track with just a beat
and we started what would become what it will become,
But it's just a journey.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
I think that I'm aware that it kind of has
this fusion, and.
Speaker 5 (12:47):
I think I think part of my signature sound is fusion,
and I think that is important to me to get
it right.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
Very proud of it. But they're probably no other songs
like it on the album. There's just every song is
different on this new album. It's like there's no thread.
That's why I called it seven like a fashion collection.
Speaker 3 (13:02):
And it's coming out in September. Can't wait for that?
What can fans expect?
Speaker 5 (13:06):
Uh? It's honestly, it's a treat. It's it's like just
meant to trip out to and escape. Just portals, you know,
just portals of like melody and music that can move
you and you can move your body to, but also
hopefully move your soul a little bit too, and get
lost emotionally in it.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
Well, can't wait to hear it in September. It is
so awesome that you've got it coming out now. Complete
side note, but when I was deep diving, I came
across the Medley video you did at the twenty twenty
four Junos of all your greatest hits. I don't know
what I'm going through hormone wise, but when you sat
on the piano and started singing I'm like a Bird,
I legit started tearing up like it was so good,
(13:46):
Oh my god, it was so good.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
We nailed it? Then?
Speaker 1 (13:51):
That was your mission going in? Can I make Brian
Fink cry?
Speaker 2 (13:55):
Wanted people to cry? Brian cry? Well? Was it about? That?
Speaker 4 (14:00):
Was it?
Speaker 2 (14:00):
The beautiful strings?
Speaker 5 (14:01):
This beautiful string arranger Owen Palette, who's also featured on
my album did the Strings.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
He's so good now.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
I'm sure performing and doing your songs is like muscle
memory for you, But when you're doing something completely different
like that, like a medley of your greatest hits, how
many times do you need to rehearse that so you
don't forget what song is next.
Speaker 5 (14:23):
We made it look easy, but it was difficult. It's like,
make it look easy, but spend four months, so like,
we spent a long time.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
Getting it right. I was like, very very specific. I was.
Speaker 5 (14:37):
I work with one of my collaborators, Hirag, really talented,
and he got it from the beginning, getting all the mashups.
We even included this really cool TikTok mashup of say
It Right, like we just I love like remix culture,
love nostalgia culture.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
I just wanted to bring it all together. I've been
playing a lot of shows, so I understood the value
of that.
Speaker 5 (14:56):
I really understood the value of taking people back, you
know what I mean, taking them back, taking them forward.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
That's why I.
Speaker 5 (15:00):
Wanted also to give Dolla's remix of give It to
Me a Little Love in that medley and say, you
know what, let's take it to the future as well.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
Here, let's put each your man. Let's give it a
little bit of that Dom Dollar remix of give it
to Me, like, that's a vibe. I think I put
that one in. There's that in there.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
I think it was there. If it's not, I'll cut
it out.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
That's so fat. Yeah, we did it.
Speaker 3 (15:22):
For anybody that hasn't seen it, do yourself a favor
and search it on YouTube.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
It is such an amazing performance.
Speaker 3 (15:29):
Nellie for Tado, Congratulations on the album coming out. Congratulations
on all the shows you've got going on right now.
Nellie for Tado, it is such an honor finally chatting
with you.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
Thank you for your time on America's Dance thirty.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
My god, I love talking to you. This was really fun.
Dance Live Forever America's Dancer.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
Counting down the biggest dance songs in the country.
Speaker 5 (15:56):
America's Dance thirty
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