Nelly Furtado stopped by NPR’s “Tiny Desk” to run through a number of hits from her expansive and celebrated discography.
The Canadian pop star performed “Say It Right,” “Explode,” “Powerless (Say What You Want),” “Promiscuous,” “All Good Things (Come To An End),” “I’m Like A Bird,” “Get Ur Freak On (Remix),” “Love Bites,” “Eat Your Man,” “Give It To Me,” and “Maneater.”
NPR’s Stephen Thompson wrote about the performance. He said: “Nelly Furtado’s career has spanned a quarter-century, not to mention tens of millions of records sold, so it’s tough to fit all the highlights into a single ‘Tiny Desk’ concert.
“But damned if Furtado didn’t at least try: Her set featured a bunch of her biggest hits (“Promiscuous,” “Say It Right,” “I’m Like A Bird,” “Maneater”), her remix of Missy Elliott’s “Get Ur Freak On” and, yes, a brand-new single called “Love Bites.” In all, 11 tracks — some of them complete, some of them truncated into medleys — made the cut.
“For this set, Furtado assembled eight of her favorite veteran collaborators, who joined her in organically re-creating her busy, glitchy pop sound without relying on backing tracks.
“That meant incorporating everything from a violin to cowbell to beatboxing to scratching courtesy of DJ Lil Jaz — Furtado and Lil Jaz have a daughter together, Nevis, who served as the set’s creative director — in a performance that felt like a victory lap, a greatest-hits reel and a homecoming all at once.”
The new single “Love Bites” arrived earlier this week and was co-written with Swedish pop star Tove Lo and British DJ and songwriter SG Lewis.
Furtado has experienced a “rediscovery” of sorts over the past year, thanks to TikTok and Gen Z driving attention to older hits like “Promiscuous” through remixes and challenges. The renewed interest has resulted in millions of additional streams across platforms like Spotify and YouTube.
“I felt called back to music from the DJ community,” Furtado says. “DJs were remixing my songs at concerts, clubs, and on social media, and I realized how much people like to dance and escape to my music. It’s the healthiest vice you can have, and I love the opportunity to write music that lets people escape more than anything.”
