Nelly Furtado's Having a Baby : Rolling Stone

While recording her second CD, Fresh Off the Boat (due November 25th), Nelly Furtado has been keeping a big secret: She's pregnant. The twenty-four-year-old Grammy-winning singer and her boyfriend are expecting their first child in September.

But don't expect maternity to be a theme on Boat, the follow-up to Furtado's multi-platinum 2000 debut, Whoa, Nelly! "Two or three years from now, you'll hear the baby record," she says. "I take a while to reflect on things."

Furtado has been working on Fresh Off the Boat, the title referencing the Canadian singer's Portuguese roots, in Los Angeles and her home base of Toronto. She has again teamed with production duo Track and Field (Brian West and Gerald Eaton), but the album is different from the hip-hop-flavored Whoa: The likely single, "Powerless," has a stripped-down folk sound; and Furtado compares the vibe of "Explode" to the Smashing Pumpkins' "1979." Another track, the moving "Saturday" was inspired by Furtado's years cleaning hotel rooms with her mother.

Incubus guitarist Mike Einziger and drummer Joey Waronker (R.E.M., Beck) are among the guests, and Furtado plans to have Bela Fleck add banjo to the song "Forca!"

Forca? "It means 'Go for it -- kick ass!'" explains Furtado, "in Portugese."

ANDREW STRICKMAN
(August 12, 2003)