Nelly Furtado has a little suprise for her fans. After appearing as a presenter at the VMAs Sunday night, the portuguese-canadian singer branched out and fulfilled her dream of making her first full-length Spanish-language album, "Mi Plan"(Spanish for "My Plan") yesterday internationally. The 30-year-old Furtado has sold more than 18 million albums so far and is one of the most recognized artists worldwide. "Mi Plan" is her 4th studio album and 3rd direction shift, is a collection of love songs and more than daring, requited or wishing they were "Being happy is my only plan." Switching languages hasn't changed her pop knack, Furtado has embraced her Latin roots, and the Latino music market. The album's first single, "Manos al Aire," (Hands in the Air), recently hit No. 1 on Billboard's Latin radio chart.
Like fellow Anglo-Latin crossover stars Shakira and Christina Aguilera, Furtado knows the value of keeping all her demographics happy. her musical career has been filled with drastic changes. Mainstream music might traditionally stick to formula but that has never dissuaded Furtado from stirring up her own special recipes. Beneath her toothsomely pretty melodies, there has always been something charmingly off-kilter about Furtado, after making the leap from folk-pop songbird that marked her 2000 debut "Whoa, Nelly!" with Grammy-winning hit "I am Like a Bird," to electro-pop diva with her colossal success 2006 album "Loose", she has decided to change her stripes yet again, has put out an album of supremely catchy, indulging her love of Latin pop-rock with "Mi Plan," her first LP sung entirely in Spanish, a language she said she learned as a teen, record filled with famous Latino guest stars.
Furtado is trying to cross over in a direction many artists don't ordinarily take. It's seems like a natural progression for her, an artist often noted for diversity in her sound. She has a ways to go, then, although her singing on "Mi Plan" is more openly emotive than ever accentuated by her telenovela-style videos and her strikingly monochrome attire. Her subject matter is moving on as well. Spanish is not Furtado's first language. In fact, the Grammy-winner says she is only "50-60%" fluent en Espanol, so her linguistic gymnastics are a gutsy move. They were also omething of a happy accident. The star discloses "I can be a little more dramatic than I can be in an English song, I'm not a natural dancer, it takes a lot of effort for me to learn all that choreography, and the last album was definitely a learning experience. I get to feel like a brand new artist again, it feels cool and it's really hard to reinvent yourself after 10 years doing it."
Like fellow Anglo-Latin crossover stars Shakira and Christina Aguilera, Furtado knows the value of keeping all her demographics happy. her musical career has been filled with drastic changes. Mainstream music might traditionally stick to formula but that has never dissuaded Furtado from stirring up her own special recipes. Beneath her toothsomely pretty melodies, there has always been something charmingly off-kilter about Furtado, after making the leap from folk-pop songbird that marked her 2000 debut "Whoa, Nelly!" with Grammy-winning hit "I am Like a Bird," to electro-pop diva with her colossal success 2006 album "Loose", she has decided to change her stripes yet again, has put out an album of supremely catchy, indulging her love of Latin pop-rock with "Mi Plan," her first LP sung entirely in Spanish, a language she said she learned as a teen, record filled with famous Latino guest stars.
Furtado is trying to cross over in a direction many artists don't ordinarily take. It's seems like a natural progression for her, an artist often noted for diversity in her sound. She has a ways to go, then, although her singing on "Mi Plan" is more openly emotive than ever accentuated by her telenovela-style videos and her strikingly monochrome attire. Her subject matter is moving on as well. Spanish is not Furtado's first language. In fact, the Grammy-winner says she is only "50-60%" fluent en Espanol, so her linguistic gymnastics are a gutsy move. They were also omething of a happy accident. The star discloses "I can be a little more dramatic than I can be in an English song, I'm not a natural dancer, it takes a lot of effort for me to learn all that choreography, and the last album was definitely a learning experience. I get to feel like a brand new artist again, it feels cool and it's really hard to reinvent yourself after 10 years doing it."
0 comments