Why now is the right time for Nelly Furtado's comeback

A quarter century on from her debut, Canadian pop star Nelly Furtado is gearing up for a major comeback in 2024. 

Her music is being rediscovered by younger generations on TikTok, she recently entered YouTube's billion-streams club, and she's set to release her first new album in seven years. 

Music journalists Suzy Exposito and Rosie Long Decter join host Elamin Abdelamahmoud to explain why Nelly's Y2K-era hits are connecting with new audiences now, and whether her new music can compete in today's pop landscape. 

We've included some highlights below, edited for length and clarity. For the full discussion, listen and follow Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud on your favourite podcast player.

Elamin: Rosie, I'm interested in this idea that Nelly Furtado, in the year 2024, has this longevity. These songs that we were introduced to as perfect pop songs in 2006 still have this life, you know? Hits from the 2000s have had this resurgence on YouTube and on TikTok. What do you think it is about her music that makes it relevant to younger audiences right now?

Rosie: I think it's something to do with the way that pop culture does have this cycle of looking back to the pop music of 20-25 years ago. Tate McRae, who's one of the biggest recent Canadian breakouts, was inspired by Nelly Furtado on her album from last year…. People are feeling a Nelly moment. People are feeling a Timbaland moment. Lay Bankz is another artist who's been blowing up on TikTok. She's got a song that references Pony by Ginuwine, which is also Timbaland-produced. Shawn Desman is having this moment. It feels like everyone's really into that Y2K sound, which is sort of synonymous with Timbaland.

I think it's that he was bringing in hip-hop, R&B — blending it with this huge pop sound ready for radio. And also, there's something a bit futuristic about it. To me at least, that era is more timeless and more long-lasting than the EDM pop moment that came after — that early 2010s moment. And that area is where you see Nelly having an album, The Spirit Indestructible, that struggled to connect. You can hear her struggling to do that sound. So, yeah, I think the moment is right. People are looking at 20 years ago and Nelly's there with her attitude, her style, and it fit perfectly with Timbaland production style, I think.

Elamin: Suzy, what's your read on why Nelly Furtado is having this resurgence right now with younger people?

Suzy: I think her being a former raver, her music translates to this current moment. Her connection to dance music has been very consistent throughout her career, and it blends in seamlessly with a lot of dance music of this time. I think about how a lot of the main pop girls right now are making club music, like Dua Lipa. I think about the fact that Sabrina Carpenter just sounds like Kylie Minogue 2.0 to me. There's a lot of disco happening, a lot of fun dance club energy, and so I think that the key to her endurance is just staying connected. But also, with the R&B influence, I think about the Tinashe song Nasty — that would have been a song that Nelly Furtado could have done in the 2000s. The vibe is so cheeky, and I think that's the vibe that a lot of young women are going for.

Elamin: We're sort of expecting an album sometime this year. I've got to say, Rosie, when you hear Love Bites [Nelly's latest single], it's not the sound that I expected Nelly to come back with. What do you make of it?

Rosie: I do love that she's having a dance moment, and I think there's different elements of dance music going on there that are maybe not bringing me back to 2012 quite as much. It doesn't quite have the hook that's bringing me in, but I do love that she's having fun.

Elamin: Suzy, this particular moment in pop is very young. We haven't had a moment this young in pop in a minute. You have Billie Eilish, Sabrina Carpenter, Olivia Rodrigo, Chappell Roan. It's interesting to me to drop a major pop album into this particular landscape when you are an artist over 40. What do you make of how Nelly Furtado fits into the current pop landscape?

Suzy: I actually don't think it's an awkward fit at all. Madonna just played the biggest concert of anyone in history in Brazil, and I think about Kylie Minogue being 55 when she put out Padam Padam last year.

Elamin: It was one of the songs of the summer, yes.

Suzy: Yeah, so I think this is a great time for her to come back and I think that the pop landscape, even though right now the charts skew very young, I think she's still got a shot just because we live in a society where, thanks to women like Cher and Madonna, they can still crank it out and people will still listen to them.

You can listen to the full discussion from today's show on CBC Listen or on our podcast, Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud, available wherever you get your podcasts.

Panel produced by Stuart Berman.