Nelly Furtado talks about family and singing in Spanish 
The Arizona Republic
Jun. 16, 2007

Nicki Escudero

Nelly Furtado has been one of the biggest pop artists of the past year, with her third album, the hip-hop-infused Loose, selling more than 6 million copies worldwide. The Canadian singer, who plays the Dodge Theatre on Tuesday, talked about taking her 3-year-old daughter on the road, her interest in singing in Spanish and why she has no desire to start her own perfume line.

Question: You've said you prefer a club energy for your shows. How did you create that on this theater tour?

Answer: We keep it really vibrant and really fast paced. We have a nice flow to the show. We don't stray from what the fans want. We play the biggest hits from all three albums. We play about 10 songs from the new album Loose.
I've got four dancers; I've got four wardrobe changes. It's very musical, though. I like to keep a focus on the music and always leave room for spontaneity and interaction with the crowd.

Q: Is your daughter on tour with you?

A: Yeah, my daughter tours with me. We go and make the most of it. We provide a place for her to play, her own space, with all her stuff. I've gotten used to it because I've been traveling with her since she was about 2 months old, off and on. We have our quiet times as well, just in Toronto, just living sort of a more normal life, but when we're traveling, it's a different type of thing. It's quite fun. I don't get much sleep.

Q: When would you like to go back in the studio?

A: I'm not sure. "Tim" (Timbaland) and I are talking maybe in the fall, just because we want to work on a group project. I don't plan on doing another solo pop album, not English anyway. I think this'll be my last solo pop record for a really long time in English. I want to move into other languages. I want to try singing Spanish and Portuguese a bit more.

Q: After those, do you think you'll go back to an English pop album ever?

A: I don't think so. Maybe an unplugged album or the band thing with Timbaland, maybe a group. I don't really see anywhere else I can go in terms of pop because my three albums are so diverse. I've kind of maxed out.

Q: With the success of Loose, do you worry about losing momentum?

A: Of course, this is a great moment for me. If I wanted, I could put out my own perfume, my own clothing line and get involved and do a bunch of movies and do stuff like that. My interests lie elsewhere right now. Right now, I just want to work on having family and a home. I'm the type of person where there's a part of me that is such an artist that I would love just painting the red splotch on a canvas and staring at it for 10 hours, and that's more who I am than putting out as many records as I possibly can or as many films as I possibly can.

Q: When you sing in Spanish and Portuguese, is that a different type of experience for you than singing in English?

A: Yeah, when I do Spanish and Portuguese, it's very different. It's a much more emotionally tuned-in experience. For me, in English, I like rapping.
Rapping is most comfortable to me in English than rhythmic singing, and in Spanish and Portuguese, I love the ballads, I love singing more folkier type of stuff. That comes quite naturally to me.