“I’m Like a Bird” by Nelly Furtado, Wednesday, June 14, 2023

In 2000, Nelly Furtado became an international star. In a music scene inundated with teen pop, Furtado was a singer-songwriter who fused international folk, Latin pop, and hip-hop  in a sometimes radio-friendly way. The Portuguese-Canadian singer had two incredibly successful non-consecutive records, her debut Whoa, Nelly! in 2000 and Loose in 2006 before almost disappearing from the pop charts. 

YOU'RE BEAUTIFUL, THAT'S FOR SURE. "I'm Like a Bird" was the first of three major hits from Whoa, Nelly! The song talked about the speaker's transient existence, assuring the listener that her "love is rare though . . . true" she really longs to fly away. She doesn't "know where [her] home is" nor "where [her] soul is."  In other words, the speaker cannot be tied down to the cages of what most of us would call a normal human existence. And if this was true of Furtado's personal life, it was certainly true of her musical expression. Rather than making the obvious follow up to Whoa, Nelly!, the singer opted to write an album that doubled down on Portuguese folk songs in her sophomore flop, Folklore. But looking purely at the first three singles from Whoa, Nelly!--"I'm Like a Bird," the sexy "Turn Off the Lights," or the radio edited "Shit on the Radio" (Remember the Days), which was censored with a DJ scratch and a title ". . . On the Radio"--these singles took us out of the old millennium and into the new somehow linking us with the angsty queens of alternative pop radio in the '90s and foreshadowing the alternative "sad girls" of the '10s. If we look to the Adult Pop and Alternative Pop of the early 2000s from Michelle Branch to Vanessa Carlton, it now seems clear that women would become the dominating force on pop radio.

YOUR FAITH IN ME BRINGS ME TO TEARS. I'll always remember Nelly Furtado as my middle school crush. At least that's what I told my friends. Furtado was certainly pretty and exuded sexuality--albeit a more grown up sexuality--than most of the other pop stars of the day. A few years later, it was J-Lo, and in high school it was Kierra Knightly or Natalie Portman. These girls were certainly pretty, but I actually had to pretend to have a crush on them. It was those late night camping conversations when the boys would start talking about girls, in low tones, whispering so camp counselors wouldn't hear. "What I'd do to her on our wedding night. . ." kind of sanctified horny conversations. You have to play along. You can play super righteous for a time, but eventually you have to play along to avoid the questions, to avoid the rumors and shame. So you throw out a name. And try to give that name as much passion as you think about Ricky Martin or Ben Affleck.

Read “I'm Like a Bird” by Nelly Furtado on Genius.