Nelly Furtado

Nelly Furtado is set to release her fourth English studio album somewhere in May this year. Tentatively on May 25th. And the album is simply titled “Lifestyle“.

Confirmed producers on this record include Ryan Tedder and long time collaborator, Timbaland.

In a recent interview, Nelly said…

Timbaland and I hooked up in the studio about three months ago and we wrote 20 songs in two days. I was really inspired. I think maybe some of that material will be on my English album

Nothing much is been said bout the direction or the type of music she will be doing for this album. We will soon find out!

Tiesto

Tiesto latest single, ‘Who Wants to Be Alone‘ features our dear Nelly Furtado which is taken from the DJ’s fourth album ‘Kaleidoscope‘.

It’s a nice video with an expected ending. I kinda like the mini storyline going on in the video. But! The biggest problem of this video is that Nelly in not in the video AT ALL! HAHA! YEA! Nelly is probably too busy with her own projects i guess…

Included the track for this song for your enjoyment

Tiesto – Who Wants To Be Alone (feat Nelly Furtado)

This is the second version of Morning After Dark featuring the trio, Timbaland, SoShy and Nelly Furtado

Slight changes have been made ! See if you can spot them!

Which do you prefer? This or the first version?

Más is the second single from Nelly Furtado’s Spanish album Mi Plan.

I found the video pretty good, apart from the fact the Nelly’s man in the video is uhm, delicious.

It depicted the whole scenario in a simple yet not boring way.

Nelly’s man spends very little time at home and when he does, he is either sleeping or on his laptop
which drives up her suspicion on him cheating on her, and decides to tail him..

As for the ending? Find it out by watching !

For his latest album, Shock Value II, Timbaland has enlisted so many collaborators. From long time friends, Keri Hilson, Justin Timberlake and Nelly Furtado to new collabos like Miley Cyrus, Daughtry, and Jet.

To kick off the hype of his latest album, Tim is releasing Morning After Dark as the lead single. The original cut features only SoShy but now the final version includes both SoShy and Nelly Furtado. I guess the inclusion of Nelly is to bring more hype to the track.

The beats of this track has the very typical Timbo beats. Once you hear it, you will know its produced by him. It’s like how you know if a remix is a Moto Blanco remix. The track is a potential club banger like Give It To Me.

Anyways, enjoy this track…

Timbaland – Morning After Dark (feat SoShy & Nelly Furtado)

Mi Plan (Spanish for “My Plan”) is the first full-length Spanish album by singer-songwriter Nelly Furtado, and her fourth studio album overall. It was released on September 15, 2009.

First Impressions
It’s almost like a 360 degree turn as compared with her last studio album, “Loose“, which dealt with R&B elements and much heavier beats. I would be incense if she stuck with the R&B sound with latin-pop. This album retrospectively sounds like her past works before “Loose“. Being a spanish-language album, the latin influence and flavour is literally felt throughout, which is more good than bad.

As we all know, Nelly likes to fuse cultural elements of her heritage into her music. This album shows that point. In short, Mi Plan is a very commercial latin sing-a-long pop album in a non-annoying manner. And I didn’t skip any tracks on my first listen, which is rare.

Standout tracks

• Manos Al Aire (Hands in the Air)
  First single. It went number 1 on Billboard Hot Latin Tracks. It’s a very mainstream track, most people should be able to infected by this catchy song almost immediately.
• Más (More)
  If anyone miss pre-Loose Nelly, this song would probably jolt you down into memory lane. Hoping this would be her 2nd single.
• Mi Plan (My Plan)
  Featuring Alex Cuba. The title track doesn’t disappoint. An uptempo duet. Has a groovy latin beat.
• Bajo Otra Luz (Under Another Light)
  Featuring Julieta Venegas & La Mala Rodríguez. Another uptempo cut that will make you sing or hum along. It’ll definitely inject a ‘happy’ mood due to the melody of this song.
• Vacación (Vacation)
  A carribean influence song. Makes me wanna hit the beach immediately. =)
• Suficiente Tiempo (Sufficient Time)
  The most danceable track of the album. It retains the sensibilities that Nelly picked up from Timbaland. Extremely rhythmic with an 80’s vibe. Very remixable too. Hoping that this song would be released as a single. This song has a hint of “Say it Right“. I would say this is the lite and bubbly version.
• Fuerte (Strong)
  Featuring Concha Buika. This song sounds like it came off from the WOMAD festival. In contender I must say, due to it’s world music vibe, it fits rather well. For anyone who doesn’t know what WOMAD is (no, it isn’t woman gone mad), it stands for World of Music, Arts and Dance.
• Silencio (Silence)
  Featuring Josh Groban. A rather haunting ballad backed with a spanish melody. Josh sounds quite good here too. I don’t really like his stuff or any of his past works though.
• Fantasmas (Ghost)
  A hidden track after the last song from the album. Wonder why is it a hidden track as it’s great. An uptempo song.

Final Verdict
Overall, this album doesn’t have any cons. Even though I don’t understand spanish in general, I really enjoy this album to the max. I know many of you guys liked the Nelly of the “Loose” era . There are fans like me who followed her since the start of her career before she made it (commercially big) with Loose.

Actually, she won her first grammy for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance in 2002 with “I’m Like a Bird“. Nelly does has the ability to make world and cultural music appeal to the mainstream crowd. Even her “Loose” works are infused with trip-hop and cultural influences.

I guess this album and her upcoming Portuguese album world serve as an interlude that will get back and connect with her pre-Loose fans till her next English album, which will reunite her back with Timbaland again. I do think both Nelly and Timbaland does wonders whenever they collaborate. Even better than with Justin Timberlake. We shall see. =)

This album scores a 4 out of 5.

Here’s the 2nd of 3rd song (Manos Al Aire is the official first single) which is part of the iTunes Nelly Furtado “Countdown To” promotion. It was released on August 11, 2009 on iTunes. Mi Plan is translated as My Plan btw.

A duet with a Latin flavour (well, of course as it’s a spanish album). Her song “Mi Plan” talks about how being in love and happy are enough when everything else is not as clear.

This single is also the album it’s name (Mi Plan). Nelly is Portuguese, but her Spanish is quite fluent too (as heard).

On September 1st, the third and last advance song will be released: “Bajo Otra Luz” (featuring Julieta Venegas and La Mala Rodríguez) available exclusively from Nelly’s “iTunes Countdown To” promotion.

This album is gonna be so good, if not, fantastic!!! With it’s different textures in pop and folk added with latin influences now. Kinda reflects back to her Whoa Nelly and Folklore days. =)

Oh, an added bonus, her official album cover!!! The design on her name has her signature imprint as always. She looks great as always. =)

Track
Nelly Furtado – Mi Plan (featuring Álex Cuba)

Manos Al Aire translated as “Hands In The Air” in English, is the lead single in Nelly’s upcoming espanol album
entitled  Mi Plan.

In the video, a couple seek help from a counsellor to work their relationship out, but the session ends up
having them arguing and screaming at each other, hence, Nelly’s repitition of “Manos Al Aire“  having
to give up fighting  which the action “Hands In The Air” explains further, possibly a sign of truce.

Overall, the video syncs well with the lyrics and whole meaning of the song, although, I felt more
could have been shown to depict the problems faced between the couple instead of emphasising
alot of Nelly walking on the streets and singing.

On a lighter note, for the girls & AJs, I’d say the male lead in the video is quite yummy

Any thoughts?

“Más” (when translated to English, it means ‘More’) is second single from Nelly Furtado’s Spanish album Mi Plan. It was released on July 21, 2009 on iTunes.

Being Latin-Pop, the song sounds easy-listening even though I don’t understand the language. The song flows well from first single, “Manos al Aire“. I guess the album would sound cohesive without being boring. I like Nelly since her “Whoa, Nelly!” days. That was like when I was 12 I think. Haha. =)

Track
Nelly Furtado – Más

“Manos Al Aire” (which stands for “Hands in the Air” in english) is the lead single from Nelly Furtado’s upcoming Spanish album “Mi Plan“. The song is released on the 29th of June for Radio Airplay and on the 30th for Digital Download.

Hmm, I think it’s quite a radio friendly song for the spanish market, being upbeat and all. Latin-pop is quite addictive too. =)

In other Nelly Furtado news, “Jump” would be the fourth single off of Flo Rida’s second album and features Nelly herself. The song will tentitively be released in the UK on July 27th, 2009.

Not really a big fan of this song. A party/crowd pleaser song. Nelly’s part on the hook is catchy though. “Jump, Jump, Jump”!!! =)

Download:
Nelly Furtado – Manos al Aire
Flo-Rida – Jump (Feat. Nelly Furtado)