Nelly Furtado Returns With First New Song in 6 Years

Canadian singer-songwriter Nelly Furtado was already kind of an electronic music queen.

The Canadian pop legend’s early aughts mega-hits had been remixed into countless DJ sets. But when a mashup of Furtado’s 2006 classic “Say It Right” and U.K. duo Bicep‘s 2017 dance world staple “Glue” made its way into the scene circa 2020, the unofficial edit put her on the map for a new generation of electronic fans.

Furtado had never heard it, but that changed when the pop star saw her name near that of Dom Dolla’s on the lineup for Beyond The Valley 2023, an annual festival in Dolla’s hometown of Melbourne, Australia. Intrigued by the moniker and having wanted to work with a DJ on new music ideas, Furtado’s team got in contact with Dolla’s.

“I woke up one day to a message from a manager, saying, ‘Were you a fan of Nelly Furtado when you were young?'I was like, ‘Of course. Who wasn’t? Me and my sister were obsessed," recounts Dolla.

Excited, Dolla gathered beats into a Dropbox and added a little something special.

“When producers send a Dropbox folder, usually it’s just music, but Dom went out of his way to record a video of himself. He went, ‘Hello legend, Dom Dolla here!’ He kind of had me at that," said Furtado.

The duo began passing music — including the “Say It Right” edit — back and forth over the internet, finding creative chemistry. 

They met IRL this past January at Beyond the Valley, where Furtado performed her first official show in five years and appeared during Dolla’s set to perform the “Say It Right” mashup live for the first time ever. 

It was a moment that extended into an artistic friendship that delivered the pair’s first official release, “Eat Your Man", a club track produced by Dolla and sung by Furtad 

The song was released last Friday and marked Furtado’s first release since her 2017 LP "The Ride", and puts her back into the spotlight via the strobes of clubland.

The idea for the track first came to life when the pair and their respective teams were in a studio outside of Philadelphia working on music ideas for Furtado. 

“We were in the car on the way to the studio one day and she turns around to me and goes, ‘I’d really like to feature on a Dom Dolla club record',” says Dolla.

He was slightly dumbstruck by the ask — but collected himself, and during that same drive, played Furtado instrumentals he’d been tinkering on.

“I felt like her sound, especially her sort of upbeat, chest voice rap tone from ‘Promiscuous’ and ‘Maneater’ would work really well on a house record on the club,” he says.

The track was made during a few extended studio sessions in Philly, where roll call included Jim Beanz, the vocal producer who worked with Furtado on tracks “Maneater,” “Say It Right” and “Promiscuous.” 

‘I said, ‘I love the way that you perform the rap part on ‘Promiscuous Girl’ and the vocal parts on ‘Maneater,'” he added, “and Jim goes, ‘Oh, I remember the settings for exactly how I did that.” The crew spent the better part of a day recording and layering Furtado’s voice to get it to sound as close to this old stuff as possible, ultimately piling on six layers of vocals for “Eat Your Man.”

Drake even helped Furtado boss up when he invited her to perform at the OVO festival in July of 2022. 

“I was literally at the zoo with my three and four year old [kids], and didn’t even know if I was going to [play] until like, 7:00 p.m.,” said Furtado.