Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Stream: 90.5 The Night

Nelly Furtado: Tiny Desk Concert

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.

SET LIST

  • “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”
  • “Maneater”

MUSICIANS

  • Nelly Furtado: lead vocals
  • Hrag Sanbalian: keys, musical direction
  • Daniel Stone: percussion
  • William Lamoureux: violin
  • Brian West: guitar
  • Lionel Jarvis: bass
  • Jim Beanz: vocals
  • Anjulie Persaud: vocals
  • DJ Lil’ Jaz: DJ

TINY DESK TEAM

  • Producer: Bobby Carter
  • Director/Editor: Kara Frame
  • Audio Technical Director: Neil Tevault
  • Videographers: Kara Frame, Maia Stern, Joshua Bryant, Alanté Serene
  • Audio Engineer: Carleigh Strange
  • Production Assistant: Ashley Pointer
  • Photographer: Michael Zamora
  • Tiny Desk Copy Editor: Hazel Cills
  • Executive Producer: Suraya Mohamed
  • Series Creators: Bob Boilen, Stephen Thompson
  • VP, Visuals and Music: Keith Jenkins

Copyright 2024 NPR

Tags
Stephen Thompson
Stephen Thompson is a host, writer and reviewer for NPR Music, where he speaks into any microphone that will have him and appears as a frequent panelist and guest host on All Songs Considered. Thompson also co-hosts the daily NPR roundtable podcast Pop Culture Happy Hour, which he created with NPR's Linda Holmes in 2010. In 2008, he and Bob Boilen created the NPR Music video series Tiny Desk concerts, in which musicians perform at Boilen's desk. (To be more specific, Thompson had the idea, which took seconds, while Boilen created the series, which took years. Thompson will insist upon equal billing until the day he dies.)