Nelly Furtado
Appearances
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
Not laugh at yourself, but find things charming.
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
Like I'm like, this is my chance to just be as weird as I want to be. I fit in when I'm on stage, right?
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
When I was 37, I had like a flingationship. I just coined this term.
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
Flingationship is like a fling relationship. So flingationship. Of love.
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
with um someone who was 23 and at the time it was just like it wasn't that big a deal but like i had was contextualizing it in my mind like oh that's so interesting because your perspective continues to change as you get older and you reflect on different things in your life differently like my new album just came out but i was listening to the one before it not this one so it's like a diary so you can go back and go and so for me music is a diary so
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
I'm Like a Bird was inspired by I was in a relationship in my very early 20s.
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
right it was kind of like a first relationship kind of first kind of more like very serious relationship after my long sort of long-term high school boyfriend it was the next relationship after that um and yeah I was in a relationship and I was out in Los Angeles finishing my album kind of on my own I was very isolated I was probably 20 I was 20 or 21 or something
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
out there kind of in this little apartment, just working on music. And my collaborators were kind of older than me and they had their girlfriends and their wives out there, but not me. So it was a bit lonely. And they're like, okay, write some new songs, you know, and bring them into the studio.
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
I think it was our first day working in LA trying to finish my album after having made the rest of it in Canada. And I was sitting on a sofa. At the time this place was called the Oakwood Suites here in LA.
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
and uh you'd go to the gym and you'd see like i don't know like kids i guess who are doing i don't know if they're working with disney or what they're working but you know it's the place that people went to make their dreams come true where they would stay when they weren't yet living in la so i sat on a sofa and uh picked up my guitar and i wrote three songs that day and uh and the third one i wrote was i'm like a bird
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
And I'm telling you, the one I wrote before was trash. It was a really bad song. Really corny, not good. Yeah, you never know.
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
My manager was at the studio. Yeah. My manager, Chris, was at the studio. And he's like, oh, I want to hear what you wrote today. So I played him the three songs. And I was convinced the corny one was good. It was really bad. I can sing it for you. Wait, please sing it for me. I'll sing it in a second. It's really crazy. No. But anyways, so... How corny are we talking?
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
So this is the one that I thought was better than I'm like a bird. It goes, okay, wait. It's like, he was cock sure and I was a pussy. Had it in the corner, I couldn't come out. He was cock sure and I was a pussy. Had it in the corner, I couldn't come out. And I think the end was like, here kitty kitty. Like I swear to God, I'm not even kidding.
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
I thought that was better than I'm like a bird, which I then was the third song on the demo that I'd made that morning. And my manager said, I don't know. Yeah, okay. I think the bird one's really good. They both had bird themes. One was cocksure. It's like a rooster.
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
Well, that song was about that. So that song, I did want to break up, you know, with that guy. So I kind of wrote the song. Oh my God, did you write the song and then break up with him? Well, I sent it to him and he said, hey.
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
i feel like i heard the song like what's up nelly yeah i did yeah so you no context you just sent him the song well i was like oh this is my latest thing yeah no but no i think i ended up that i ended that relationship on tour but it was literally it wasn't very it was like from a pay phone you know on tour like i was with my band you know like it was one of those moments but it's very new
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
I'm very chameleonic, like not only in my music, but like in the way I look so I can be I like chameleonic. You wouldn't, you wouldn't recognize me. I mean, sometimes I don't care. Like sometimes a little, it depends what mood you're in, right?
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
it's kind of like you know your college boyfriend right you know and then you move on so that was my college is like making music and touring so I only did one year of college so then I met him around that time so yeah I had to make my dreams come true and you had to I had things to do and places to be so but like not like a bat as sad as it is to get broken up with for him it is kind of iconic that there is a man out there that can be like that song is about me like that is pretty fucking cool
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
Oh, I like this question. I've been dumped before. Okay. Yeah. Only once. Oh. Yeah, it is a flex. No, that's not true. Two or three times, but more like when I was younger. But but yeah, like being having your heart actually broken by someone that doesn't want to be with you anymore really hurts really badly. So yeah, it's really, really upsetting.
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
And I hadn't experienced that till like much later in life till quite recently in the last five years. And that was really hard for me because I wanted to hang on. I wanted to hang on and I didn't get it. And I built up a lot of expectations and things based on things that maybe were more about me and selfishness. Right. And then it was like, OK, like when do I come to grips with reality?
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
But I've also left. Yes, I've been the end breaker upper. Yeah.
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
Oh, my God. It's hard. It's easier to break up with someone than to have somebody dump you. Being dumped is the worst. It is pretty hard, I think. No, no, no. It's the best, though. Because then you grow. Because then you go. It's that whole thing. Like, you've got to hit dirt, man. You've got to hit dirt. You've got to hit rock bottom. I have hit rock bottom before. And it's beautiful.
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
Because then I just come out so strong. Right. And it's good. And I'm not saying it's, like, perfect. And I'm like, oh, yeah. You know, we wear our wounds, don't we? Like our wounds never really go away, I don't think. We can work on them. You know what I mean?
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
But like, that's okay. You know, you have stuff to deal with, stuff to work through. But yeah, I think... I think it could be a good place.
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
Bottom of like, oh, you know what I go back to a lot? Oh, he's just not that into you. Just look up if you're ever struggling with somebody who's broken up with you or somebody, even anybody, a flingationship, something like that. And you feel they're not giving you the attention you want and something's off. Just like go look up quotes from. he's just not that into you, it is so healing.
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
Do you do that often? I've done it before. I think twice in my life. Where I'm like, oh.
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
So I really did kind of base that off of a woman that was friends with at the time that was like a colleague was like, engaged to her and she was a knockout and just really was, did personify that Maneater energy.
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
And, um, what at the time, what I really, really felt at the time when I was making that whole album with Timbaland and when we were making Maneater as I did feel very, I was actually only about 26 or something when I wrote that song, but I felt There's something really empowering about masculine and feminine energy together. You know what I mean? When somebody embodies both.
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
And I was trying to capture that in a song. And I really feel that when I play it live. It feels primal. It feels like it's for everyone. It's almost like a verb. Like you're man-eatering.
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
No, not really. I think I was like just making that record in Miami. I was feeling the vibes. I was feeling myself. I'd spent all day in a bathing suit, like playing with my kid on the beach. You know, like I was feeling myself in the sun to be totally honest. And I was newly single. See? Every time. God. Newly single brought us a man-eater promiscuous girl.
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
Yeah. That's amazing. That just kind of had fresh energy. That kind of seeing the world through new, like, I guess, red colored glasses.
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
Yeah, the energy is very, like, red and, like, passionate. But also with promiscuous, I actually didn't write that chorus. It was Timbaland's idea. It was? Yeah, it was. And then I sat down and finished the lyrics with Attitude, this amazing rapper that he was working with at the time. And I was hesitant, but my good friend Jim Bean sat me down.
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
Now we're getting the juicy bits. Just so all my friends know this about me. I love love. It's my favorite topic. I try to set people up all the time. Poorly. I don't have a very good success rate. So they kind of roll their eyeballs at me. A little Cupid. But I do love American men. I do. But I've found some interesting Canadians along the way. You have?
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
He's like, I think this is authentic and I really like this energy and you sound great on it. And I did know that I laced up the verses and I sounded good and all that. Now when I sing it, I love it.
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
That's a good question. And I will also give a quick shout out to the music I grew up on. So Salt-N-Pepa, TLC. Trailblazers, those girl groups in the late 90s when I was a teenager. I was coming of age 14, 15. I was blessed to have that music to listen to. It was like Mary J. Blige, TLC, Salt-N-Pepa, and they were giving this empowered sexuality and choice. It was about choice.
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
It was about I'm in control of my choices. And that was the energy we wanted to capture with a song like Promiscuous. It's a choice. It's an even playing field. I think to feel sexy, to feel sensual, you have to spend time on yourself. You have to spend time alone. You have to spend time, just you have to tap into pleasure, which is joy, right? Joy is pleasure, right? So if you really feel...
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
And embodied, like in your body, like I'm not gonna lie, like I feel pretty sexy when I'm like dancing, you know? Like I'm in the dance studio because it's such an act of self-love to apply your mind and body to something like choreography and to just be, to feel that, I would say it's like almost like an equilibrium. And I think from there you can feel very confident, you know?
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
And I think it's something you develop. I think your sexuality is something you develop, you know? And when you start, you know, whenever and you're,
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
Oh my gosh, this is so fun. So I've only been here a few minutes. I'm having so much fun.
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
I was going to say, like, if you had to say... Some high quality, yeah.
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
No, I mean, I think people can teach you, you know, like I think you can grow in relationships. Like I think you can grow and you can kind of like pick up things as you go and like that ebb and flow again. But at the end of the day, yeah, you got to feel, you got to feel good.
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
I'm changing. I used to. Yes, Alex. And? I'm a lover. I love love. I need muses. I'm a muses girl. Like I need, I think it's because I'm an artist. I'm a writer. I create. And it's like, I grew up thinking and just feeling like I'm, I love like lovers. Like I love to, I love the idea of being just really inspired and the joy in dating and like that. It's like there's nothing like that.
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
But I also enjoy my solitude so much that I have had people ask me, like friends, like colleagues, like, Why are you even in a relationship? You have so much going on in your mind. You should just date yourself. How are you even able to be with someone? And it is true. I like my solitude so much that sometimes it is hard for me to be in a relationship. Because I'm just like, ugh.
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
It's too hard, yeah. It's like I've always felt more comfortable to be more like an enjoyable kind of like, I'm not going to say part-time. I don't know what to say.
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
Flingationship. I think it's fun. And just kind of, I don't know, I follow my passions and my lust and my interests too. I do have ADHD and I think it's affected me. Women experience it differently than men.
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
I was only recently diagnosed but I read a great book and it talked about how even as women with ADHD we can pick partners that kind of make us feel like we're in the passenger seat because you want somebody else to make all the decisions for us and we just want to coast right interesting and I found that really interesting when I read that because I was like oh yeah and I think when I'm on my own I'm more able to kind of navigate to my whole life in a way that works for my brain and for my comfort levels oh but I do love love and I do love falling in love and
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
Well, I'm in my 40s now, so I'm about... I'm 45. I'll be 46 soon, which is... Love. And it's like a new beginning for me. It's like a very fun time in my life because... I didn't really get to be single in my 20s, right? I was pretty locked down in relationships from the time Not locked down in a negative way, but just like, you know, I was in long-term relationships for much of my 20s and 30s.
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
I find that fun still, but I think my priorities have changed.
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
Yes, and you want to stay yourself. I think that's the most important thing. I have had a tendency to lose myself in relationships.
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
Yeah. You know, I don't know. Isn't it sort of like life, you know? And then again, we talk about this experience even when you're in your 20s and you're growing. Everybody, I mean, I always wanted to have a family, you know what I mean, and have children. And we all have that dream, you know, of just kind of settling down and like, oh, now I'm at the Yellow Brick Road. This is so great.
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
Oh, wait, and now I'm at the Yellow Brick Road, right? And it comes in all these variations. I think I just had that feeling like I had finally kind of arrived at that, you know, yellow brick road. And it was like going to be that for me. And then it turned out that it wasn't. And that's why it hit so hard. You know what I mean? I absolutely.
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
Because it was the first time it had felt, you know, like that right. You know, where it was like, oh. Where you felt like you had that profound sense of a certain kind of peace, you know what I mean? And a certain kind of certainty, right? And it's that idea when the certainty just kind of gets pulled out from under you or the rug gets pulled out.
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
And you go, oh, my God, I have a lot to learn still. I have a lot to learn about me. And you might have had a horrible experience. For sure, I went through a very difficult time where I think – I accepted some things that, uh, that I would never accept now, you know, in terms of, um, the way you're treated. Yeah.
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
You cannot see it at all when you're in it. And, Sometimes we just love so hard and we love and I'm sure there's women out there too, you know, when we become mothers, we're quite vulnerable when we become mothers, because we just want what's best for our kids and we want to protect them. And I think that in general, I'll say that it can really happen to anybody feeling powerless.
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
You know what I mean? You could have all the money in the world and all the resources, but in the mind, really that is your only wealth is in your mind. And so if you can't feel strong enough and clear enough to move out of a situation that might be toxic for you and not the best for you and also abusive in any way, you know, I think that
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
Yeah, I'm definitely not here to tear anyone down or anything, but I think that it's honest to say that it is hard when you're in a relationship that has that imbalance, I will say, and abusive qualities. It is hard to see outside of it because you isolate yourself. You stop talking to your friends.
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
you don't tell you know your friends the truth about what's going on in your life and you live in a bubble and it's hard to admit you know that you have chosen um to not say anything right it's hard to admit to yourself it is it is right and then on top of that the love right love you know keeps you there because oh you wanna you know and I and I will say that too like I think
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
So only recently, I think in the last few years, I've become single again. It's so fun dating. I love it. You do? I do love it.
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
As women, we think we tend to sacrifice our happiness sometimes, you know, once we're in it. Of course. Once we've fallen in love, right? We tend to... We sacrifice ourselves sometimes.
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
And we think we're doing the right thing. Yeah.
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
Fear, fear is huge too because when you have, when you fear, you know, when you have fear, that can be a very powerful emotion. You can be afraid, but you can, it kind of like you create it in your mind, you know, you can be afraid like, oh, what's the person going to do to me or say about me or like, you know, et cetera, et cetera, or I don't know. You just, you fear, you fear that.
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
And again, it's heightened when you have, you know, like-
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
Because it's on my watch when I feel like it. Right. You're like, on my terms. On my terms, boys. And it's like when you come correct. You know what I mean? Yeah. So now my type is like, come correct. You know, they ask me out on a date or for dinner or just like... It's all in the way, you know, the words, you know, use the sort of... Yeah, I like confidence. I adore confidence.
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
I almost had the strength, but again, like something would keep me there, you know, where I was like, oh, this is, you know, this is the moment. So I think that in, I will say having remarkable friends, like I'm very lucky. I have some really, really, really amazing friends, really core like childhood friends that have been there for me.
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
my whole entire life and they just kind of knew what to say to me and knew what was too much or too little. And even the hard stuff, you know, I have some friends that I will say to ladies out there, you know what, those people that are telling you what you don't want to hear, those are the ones you need to keep close.
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
hopefully they know you well enough to not repel you with judgment or anything like that. And it's not judgment. You can sense when it's love. And I think everyone has someone, you know, maybe one person or one voice in their life that is maybe like reminding you when stuff is not okay and like what your worth is and what behavior is unacceptable if you cannot see it for yourself. It's so true.
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
Yeah, to just kind of be like, no, actually, I'm not going to talk to you anymore. Right. Or whatnot. But tough love doesn't work all the time, but it's in doses, right? And I'm trying to think of another thing that helped me. I think... Ooh, geez, that's such a good question. I think you have aha moments. You know what I mean?
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
They just have sometimes like a moment where you're like, okay, you know, and then sometimes, I guess I was lucky in a way because maybe like, on top of it, I wasn't really the one who chose at the end of the day. Like, you know what I mean? I went through a rough time, but then At the end of the day, it wasn't really my decision. But then I quickly learned that then, okay, now I'm doing me.
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
You do. And then for some reason, your brain only feeds you happy memories. It's really weird.
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
You're like, maybe she was actually the restaurant, the coffee shop, like the movie we went to. And it's like very weird. It's so fucked up. That's a tough phase. Yeah, that's a tough phase when your brain feeds you all these happy memories. Let's flood you with happy because there are happy memories, right?
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
Yeah, it's just totally normal. It's a process. You know what I mean? Because the truth is, it's like anything, right? Like, how many Band-Aids do you have, right? And how long do those take to heal?
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
I'm serious. It was either called Seven or... Let's be honest, you know nothing about love. Maybe I'll call the deluxe that.
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
The story of everyone's life, right? It's like, we know love, of course. I know great love. I'm blessed to be a mother and have wonderful family and friends and things like that. So I know what love is. But if I was to give advice on romantic love to my children... I'm going to vote for the golden retriever. I'm sorry. You got to be best friends.
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
I think you have to have an authentic, true friendship. It's about partnership. You know, forget all the other stuff. It's about partnership. But also stay you, man. Stay you. Yeah. And listen to your friends.
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
Your gut is always right. The little voice in your head that tells you, and this is not even this like, and this is past relationship, but the little voice.
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
I don't know why. Why are we always like. But that's like we gaslight ourselves. I have a song actually, I think I'm going to put on my deluxe called Gaslight.
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
yeah another album title was red flags oh my god too relatable i'll take these um so anyways yeah so gaslight we gaslight ourselves in a way you know what i mean because it's like boom boom boom boom oh it's yeah it's like an echo chamber can you share like how do you get your confidence back after a breakup oh Me? Kind of like exercise and going out. I started to go out a lot after my breakup.
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
I was ready. Because it was such a long, dwindling breakup. But by the end, I was like, okay, I'm dating now. This is awesome. All the ending stuff. And then I... Yeah, just went out and had fun. And just I think I like really found a lot of joy in like dressing up again and like clothing and fashion.
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
But you have to enjoy being single authentically. You can't just say, oh, yeah, I'm out here. I'm having fun dating. No, if you... If you're looking for a relationship for real, then be authentic about that. But if that's not what you're looking for, ask yourself, what do you want? And if you want to just have fun and see what's out there and that's fine too. True.
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
And yeah, because I think I was like really kind of wearing like a mommy uniform for like three years. What was your mom? My place was a block away from the Target.
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
Okay, I do remember taking my teenager on a tour. Of Target? Of a university. She was shopping for universities out in California. My shirt was nice, but it would look like a tablecloth because it was blue and white checkers, but it wasn't even a flattering cut. Okay. And I didn't have time to shop, so I would just grab like whatever I saw. Nothing against Target, but like- I love Target.
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
Yeah, yeah. Target's fun. You can find great stuff, but I think that I didn't diversify. Got it. I wasn't really like, I didn't have time. I didn't have time. I didn't have time. Or I just wore stuff that was baggy, which is totally normal. Like I breastfed all my kids.
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
easy access so you just weren't feeling yourself as much and then once you got through the breakup you're like you know what I'm gonna like start putting my cute outfits on I'm gonna do my glam I'm gonna get out there I'm gonna go have fun well the studio helped me too so I started going to the studio and I started writing I started recording music again and I got so many emotions out oh my god I got so many emotions out of the studio I would cry in there I would get angry in there
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
it was so good for me such a good therapy wait is it is it true that you actually wrote like 400 songs I did yeah Nelly can you just like rewind and tell me like how like if this house was my studio what I would do is I would adjust like we're in LA today so I'd be like who's in LA today which are my friends are in LA which producers which writers which friends and that's what informed this album this album is really just like a let's party type of album because I
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
I was getting over a breakup and I was like, my social life became the studio. So like, you know, like I, I, you know, I don't, I wasn't in the mood to like go away and write songs by myself on a guitar. It was like, no, we're bringing everybody in. I would invite like people after their concerts to come hang out and make music with me. Yeah. And then my daughter was really coaching me on too.
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
Cause she was having fun in there too. So it was like, we're making music now. We're, we're, we're, we're doing, we're this like really cooking now and like really having fun.
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
I like to stay up late making music till really late. So like the sun comes up and I get really inspired and I get my bongo drawn. Just joking. picturing you in there with a bongo drum like let's go let's go my djembe and I just go till seven no but it's pretty much yeah we just like a bunch of music we just have fun and um the way I pick the songs oh my god it's almost like
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
I always say, like, you put flowers together at a flower shop. It's like, why do you like those flowers, right? And I think it's also, like, whatever goes together. And it's, like, a bit like a fashion collection, just kind of putting it together. I love it. One session I had had, like, a bunch of different people who, like, didn't even necessarily make music.
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
Like, I think at one time, like, a comedian ended up in there, this girl. And I was like, oh, what you got? Like, I'm very, like, I'm a hippie that way. Like, if you were there, I would make you sing. No. Yes. I believe anybody can write a song. I've done that before. I've done like art shows.
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
I'd be like, what's your favorite childhood vacation you went on? Oh, shit.
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
So like you're in a Disneyland. So what did you like about it?
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
Yes. Just like, so you'd be like, oh. Like, euphoria, everything's telling me a story, yeah. Oh, seen it before, yeah. Seen it before, yeah. Yeah, you know what I mean?
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
i am fucking chilled that's how i write that's how i write starts a song in two seconds yeah oh then we'd go somewhere with it if i keep going but yeah i am fucking obsessed yeah i am not okay that you just said thank you fireworks above the castle blowing my mind no your voice every night it's like whatever me just being like okay for the rest of the interview just saying no and then we call it disneyland oh
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
Oh, that's a good question. I mean, I think it's necessary at a certain stage. It is. Let's be honest. Aren't we honest on this show? We're being very honest today, Nellie.
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
think that's all we're doing come on i love it i mean it's all it's like energy you have to like you know squeeze the lemon right it's like squeeze the lemon until the juice is gone so that's what it's like so then i'm one day like well this lemon has no more juice so no more
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Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
breakup sex yeah i think it's natural that is and what i hear from other people too yeah i think that's a great take i love that right guys when they break up with something like yeah yes well yeah we might have seen each other once or twice uh last week literally literally um okay so are you single right now
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
okay you're single i'm dating though like i'm dating but i'm dating different people oh yeah just like yeah you've got like a little roster going on i mean it's not a roster but it's like i feel like that's derivative yeah yeah i like the roster i've got a plethora of options no i mean i call it the flingation chips flingation so it's like oh like it's like a potential i will say that i have like there's different potentialities and there's different like
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Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
levels of like interest and just kind of and romance in different areas I will say I'll describe it that way are you going so yes I'm single again love I've been single for a couple years what is your ideal date I went on a really nice date recently oh where it was daytime
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Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
Oh, my God, Drake. Yes, we go way back. Actually, he just asked me to come sing again a couple nights ago on Saturday night. He's like, he asked me at 11 p.m. to show up at 1 a.m. And I love him to death. But I was like, I am not showing up without glam.
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Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
okay yeah we'd love that yeah I kind of like I think I recommend the daytime date for a first date because it's broad daylight so there's a particular date it was very hot so I was like very sweaty but that was unfortunate I actually had boob sweat a classic I know or just like dinner like that type of thing I love being like yeah just kind of like chill yeah just going going out for dinner but I like the idea of dressing up for a date sometimes if it's appropriate and
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
but ironically i like never have time so like get ready so fast but but i do like that idea yeah would you ever bring a guy to one of your shows i brought guys to my shows yeah but it's like it's not really fair because they just go oh my god right they're gonna just like fall in love immediately they're like i love you it's like show me so different but it is cool because you get to show like what you do true you know what i mean but they're immediately in love
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Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
I mean, it's pretty awesome. The concert's awesome. It's cool. You see me go up there and do my thing. Oh, my God. Yeah. So I'm strategic about inviting the win, though, right? It's not always appropriate or the right setting.
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Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
But it's almost like, what would be the best weapon in the weapon show? What would it be called? Like a machete? Oh, like a machete. The show is like a machete move. Yeah. You'd be like, come to my show. So like, you know, pull out the machete right away. You want to time it out. Anyway.
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
The self-work. Yeah. For actual partnership, like long term partner, I would want somebody who's worked on their self in an authentic way. Not in like a surface way, but like more like this, the spiritual side, like a little bit of exploration there. You know what I mean? But like authentically and also like some growth in that department, I would say maybe growth and like.
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
But you want somebody confident. Yeah. But confidence comes from, I think, a genuine good heart. You know what I mean? I think I think for partners, you want somebody with a good heart. You want somebody nice.
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
Like, I don't know why, but like sometimes we're attracted to, you know, people who aren't that nice. Just like to people. Watch how they talk to like the people you encounter like on your date or whatever when you're dating, like how they treat your friends, your family, if your friends like them. If your family likes them, all those big green flags, you know?
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Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
Like, bitch, get me glam. Then maybe I'll roll up. I was up. Okay. I was up. But I was like, it was an event. It was like this really fun event in Toronto. And I was like, no, I can't show up without glam. Because of course, you know, he's so famous. It'll be everywhere.
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Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
I'm very lucky because I got to tippy toe like very slowly into the waters and then things kind of lined up in a really cool way. So started with I was already making music by the time. I kind of showed up on stage after five years with Drake at an event in Toronto and I sang and it was like, ooh, this is fun. I realized, oh, maybe I have something new to offer this. I've worked on myself.
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
I feel different. Maybe I'll be better at my job now. You know? I'm older, better, wiser. That vibe. Then I started booking more shows. I booked a show in Australia where I met Dom Dala. Then we make this
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
track and then we're playing it at Lollapalooza and Coachella and it's like crazy and that his raves that he throws after his shows like just the whole thing so fun so everything lined up so nicely that I was making my album while I was getting out there again so it wasn't so scary right it was baby steps and that to me was a blessing what did you learn about yourself from writing this new album
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Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
oh my god wow I learned that I've become an even better like producer and person who brings people together because I got to try new ideas like I got to try like like like I have like like weird juxtapositions of people and sounds on on my album and I think that's just because oh my god I love people genuinely I have such a curious mind like I told you like I'd love to have you in the studio and I want you to sing like
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
So I am more interested in like the craft of making it almost than the outcome. Does that make sense? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Interesting. Yeah. Like I'm more into just like, oh, it's the mad scientist part, you know?
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Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
So like, and I found such confidence in there this time around. I've always been confident, but this time I was more open hearted. Like before I used to not like writing songs in front of people. And now I don't care. I would just turn the mic on like this, have everything blast to the speakers. It feels like you're at a live show. And then we just like hang out and have a good time.
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
Well, she's been wanting me to come on the show forever. She's been talking about it since we started making music for this album, some of it together. And I was like, yeah, I mean, I love that. It would be great. Your show's amazing. You're amazing. Love your energy. So she's thrilled. She's like, right on. And then I was like, oh, OK, you can come help me with that.
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Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
So I think I grew in vulnerability. Yeah. That's amazing. My vulnerability. Yeah.
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Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
my god i think the album has a lot of emotion i think it has a lot of purity um and if you just want to escape like if you just want to feel like you know that music that makes you feel something for real i will humbly say that i think a lot of the songs do make you really feel something and make you really escape can i and i spent my time making it and i i definitely think it's just really good quality music genuinely
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
But of course, I'm just thinking about what do I make now? I'm just never satisfied.
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
Dream collab. I mean, I still think it'd be cool to have a song with Drake. I think people would love that because we're both Canadian. The lore, you know?
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
Aw, thank you for having me. This was really fun.
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
But anyways, yeah, I do love him a lot. He's a great guy. And I think that, I mean, he's done a lot for the music industry. You know, Toronto was a secret for a long time. A secret that I loved as well, growing up there and making music there in my teens, my early 20s. But now it's just so nice. He kind of really put Toronto on a map in a different kind of way in Canada in general.
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
But anyways, yeah, that's how that went down.
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Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
I kind of wish I did, though, because I saw a video and he looked pretty cute. He had a yellow track suit or something. And he looked good.
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Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
But then I'm like, what would I have worn? Pink? Because it would have been all videos of yellow and then, you know, like what color.
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Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
That's what performers do. You always think about what things like pop, especially in pop music, you think about what things look like too.
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Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
Yes, a chambermaid. Was that your first job? Yes. Well, that's a good question. My very first job was actually, it was the same year. I did like, I would jump over the fence at my childhood home and I would do filing for like a home inspection company. So I would, but I would, it was long hours, but it was helpful, I think, to just sit there and organize. And then I got a job at the motel.
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Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
It was called the Robin Hood Motel. Yes. And my mom worked there, my sister, my aunt, my cousin. My mom ran the housekeeping department. She was like the head honcho there. And so she hired me and I would every morning just show up. I mean, harder in the teen years when you're out the night before and then you get there at 6 a.m. And I'm like, where's the coffee?
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Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
And my brother was gardening there at the time, too. So we'd be like Saturday mornings like, OK. But it was such a good experience because I worked there for probably 10 summers straight. I even worked there one summer when I thought like after I graduated high school and I went to Toronto and thought I was going to be famous in two months. But reality, you know, like that's not how it works.
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
Your goals take a while to achieve. Moved back home, worked there again that year when I was going to college again. in my hometown of Victoria. And that was the year where I was like, oh, I wonder if my dreams will come true. But growing up doing that was good because the work ethic. Because when you get into this industry, the hours can be long. When you're starting out, it's a lot of hustling.
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
So yeah, her and her friend are here today. They're excited. She'd almost stayed in the room, but I was like, I'm just going to be looking at her the whole time. So she's in the other room.
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
That's an interesting question. I think for me in particular, my parents come from these like really, really like
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
working class roots like my parents are from the Azores Islands and a tiny from a tiny island called San Miguel like from a tiny village you know farmers you know like just they were already like picking beans and like carrying their water from you know the main water fountain to home like when they were like 10 or 11 you know what I mean they're already working at the farm by the time they're 12 and so that's my that's where I come from so you really can't
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
get bougie on people when you come from those, you get canceled in your family. You can get canceled. So you can't, you can't even go there. Like I have no business like acting like I'm better than anyone.
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
Sorry, I have a story in my mind. Because she said, I remember, you know, be careful what you wish for, right? Because she's like, oh, mom, yeah, you should start working again. And then a year later, she's like, why are your hair appointments five hours long and your nail appointments are three hours? Like, you've kind of become a diva, mom.
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
you know this is my job you're like sweetie you know mom nelly now you're about to meet nelly furtado the superstar she said what do you mean you can't pick me up at the airport anymore i'm sorry my hair appointment went over she was sorry she was livid i'm obsessed oh my god it's like well you want a mom to be back at work here this i'm doing my thing i'm back to work babe it's what it takes yeah that is amazing she's like god damn it
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
It's so funny because I always find it interesting what people cling to in stories. So I did a general interview with my daughter for people. But then that became a thing like, oh, this is the story. But then I realized, oh, I get it. It's like... I wrote a song about it in 2003. I think it was my second album. And yeah, it's called Powerless. And it's like, paint my face in your magazines.
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
Make it look lighter than it seems. Paint me over with your dreams. Like, shove away my ethnicity. So at the time... It's more about the idea of, okay, wait, like I'm in this business. Like when you're young and you're 22, 23, it's like, it's a whirlwind, right? Like all of a sudden becoming successful at the career you always dreamed of.
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
And if you're in it for the music, like I always was, I think that all that other stuff with the visuals and the aesthetics and the,
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
oh wow, they like you and you look great on the red carpet, but then the opposite is true as well, and just kind of questioning it all, but it is true, yeah, I'd bring my own clothes to photo shoots, because I was like a girl, like I was 21, 22, young girl, but yeah, you'd see, at the time, I think, yeah, the beauty standard was a bit different, so I think that they would Photoshop a lot, and just kind of like, oh, I thought I had hips, but it's hard anyways, because when you see yourself on TV for the first time, you know, you always look different on the camera,
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Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
And it can be a little jarring to be on TV and at the spotlight that much at a young age, I guess.
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
Oh, wow. In general, in life? Yeah. Oh, my God. Probably when I'm like at the park with my children, just kind of like pushing them on a swing or something. But then I'm also quite happy when I am kind of waving my freak flag at a concert and singing on my concert on stage. Because it's also my other chance to really be myself. Like I do feel very myself when I'm on stage.
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
You know what's so funny? I feel the most confident now.
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
I don't know. Something happened. I don't know. I just had like I had the 40s glow up. I was just like, wow, I just feel like me. You know, I feel like I know what happened. I had time to work on my inner life. You know, I had time to work on the things you don't have time to do when you're busy. Right. And then, you know, when you're burnt out and you don't get to journal, you don't get to.
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
you know, go to therapy, you don't get to go do those things. But I had a good time of three or four years of doing that. So I think by the time I got to this stage in my life, yeah, I just feel super happy with myself. Even when I get criticized, you know what I mean? I mean, who doesn't read the comments sometimes, right? It's hard not to.
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
I think it's human nature to go, oh, what are people saying? Of course. And then you're like, wow. Certain things, right? I feel like me personally, I've experienced my body's polarizing, you know what I mean? Which is so, it's crazy to say that, but it is. Because I see like, oh, wow, why did...
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
It's just like, wow, there's a lot of like comments and people arguing about like what I look like or like, you know what I mean? It's so interesting what fuels and triggers people. But I think at the end of the day, it can be really positive because you're starting conversations and that comes from confidence. And I think that's what it is.
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
It's like when you when you are confident, I don't know what it is, but I guess confidence. Sometimes it can be threatening or very empowering.
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Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
Well, first of all, my body's changed a lot. I've had three kids. I'm curvy, you know, and I have a curvy body. I'm like... If you go to where my parents are from, from San Miguel, my body is no big deal. Every girl on the beach has the same bum that I have.
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
It's true though. So it's all context and just maybe they're comparing you to another era when maybe you looked different or anything like that. But I've had fun with it because I've been wearing very body con clothing and it's very empowering. And I just kind of, I love... I love feeling this confident. I literally didn't even wear underwear on stage till like a year ago. I'm upset. Not even.
Call Her Daddy
Nelly Furtado: Embracing the Single Life
It's only been six months. I only let the booty out like six months ago. I'm upset.