Nelly Furtado is Powerless 'Folklore' album

"It was summertime and I was in The Azores, hanging around the small village my parents are from. I was looking out on this very rural setting, on a road going up a hill. There was an old man coming down the hill with a pitchfork on his shoulder. He was wearing gum boots, work pants ? and a Coca-Cola T-shirt. I saw that and thought, "That's my album!"" ? Nelly Furtado

Quaint tales and obscure sayings and antique vases safely encased under museum glass are all nice enough relics of tradition. But the living history and customs of different cultures at different times seem, for singer-songwriter Nelly Furtado, as rocking as a Camaro stereo blaring monster beats.

The timeless and the cutting-edge comprise essential components of the energetic m?lange that has made Furtado one of pop music?s premier artists. This mix emerges with an explosive new simplicity and breadth on Folklore (set for release Nov. 25, 2003, on DreamWorks Records). The album is Furtado?s follow-up to her multiplatinum debut, Whoa, Nelly! It shows just how variously and hard the stuff of folklore - as Nelly Furtado images it - can kick.

"This is the folklore of my mind," Furtado says. "The word often conjures up something old, but I?m kind of flipping its usual understanding. Folklore is something magical and mystical. I like that. But more than that, I think of it as a belief in origin. It?s people?s stories, basically. Everybody everywhere has his or her own folklore. It can be light; it can be dark. And it doesn?t always have to come from the past. The historical part is not the point. Gossip about a celebrity? That?s modern folklore. The story of Ozzy Osbourne biting the head off a bat? That?s folklore as well."

Furtado showed up on the scene in the fall of 2000, 20 years old, with the release of her acclaimed debut, Whoa, Nelly! Radio tracks such as "I?m Like A Bird" and "Turn Off The Light," both Top 10 hits on the Billboard singles charts, introduced listeners to a young Canadian, British Columbian by birth and Portuguese by heritage, who brought a self-styled vibrancy to the diverse musics she whipped together: hip-hop, Portuguese fado, pop, soul, classical, Brazilian, dance, folk, Latin and anything else that seemed expressive and alive to her.

Working with the production team of Track & Field (Gerald Eaton and Brian West) in Toronto, where she has lived since her late teens, Furtado struck fans and musicians as that extraordinary thing, a genuinely real and talented person. The songs she wrote and sang in her alert voice were about feelings old, new and futuristic; local and international; serious and daft; historic and chic; and the music was as inventively rhythmic as it was melodic. For all of this, Furtado and Whoa, Nelly! were recognized. Among slews of other citations and nominations, the Canadian Juno Awards named Furtado its Best New Solo Artist and Best Songwriter in 2001, and at the 2002 Grammy Awards, "I?m Like A Bird" won Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.

Whoa, Nelly! remained a presence in the marketplace for two years, a lifetime by pop music standards. But as Folklore demonstrates, that was only the beginning. The new album?s songs - produced by Track & Field and Furtado - further develop the ideas and emotions that have long compelled Furtado. And with her ever-upbeat sense of fusion and generosity, and without sacrificing zing or immediacy, her music continues to ignore the stylistic restrictions that can leave pop music stale. One need look no further than first radio track "Powerless (Say What You Want)" for evidence of this.

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Nelly Furtado is Powerless - Folklore