Hello! mag article

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The Canadian songbird was one of the international names invited to up the glam factor at the launch of the David Jones summer fashion collection in Sydney

Sizzling appearances by Nelly Furtado and Mischa Barton at a fashion event Down Under more than made up for the cold snap sweeping Sydney on Wednesday. The North American beauties had been contracted to up the glamour quotient at the launch of department store David Jones' summer collection.

Always right on the money when it comes to her fashion choices, Canadian chanteuse Nelly wore a velvet moss green jacket over a sheer black jumper and silver chain necklace. Meanwhile The OC lovely had opted for an embroidered top teamed with skinny jeans and platform heels. Mischa and her Victoria-born colleague were following in the footsteps of another high-profile face - two years ago Linda Evangelista was called in to promote the upmarket store's 2004 range.

Nelly has been quite the globetrotter recently, clocking up the air miles on a whirlwind promotional tour for her latest musical offering Loose. In May she was pictured in London's trendy Soho area, where her appearance caused a wave of excitement among fans. Then in July the 27-year-old mother-of-one made a foray south of the Canadian border for a date with US talk-show host David Letterman.



[http://www.hellomagazine.com/fashion...mischabarton/]


PROFILE: Nelly Furtado


"I hope I can remain focused and versatile," says Canadian pop sensation Nelly Furtado of her meteoric rise to fame. "I love being able to do what I do and yet hook up to do rap with Missy Elliot or a Portuguese folk song with my family. I feel it's all a product of being Canadian."

Young Nelly's success is not without its fairytale element. Back in 1999 she was earning her keep as a housemaid in her hometown of Victoria in the western province of British Columbia. Within two years, she was rocketing up the charts with the Grammy-winning single I'm Like A Bird, opening for U2 on their US tour, and winning plaudits from stars such as Michael Jackson and Elton John. To celebrate, she bought herself 50 pairs of sneakers, having developed an aversion to "sensible shoes" during time spent working for a Toronto security firm. Nelly's strong family ties have gone a long way to keep her feet on the ground, however. "We grew up simple," she says of her childhood. "If I'm not healthy and happy then all this means nothing to my parents."

Born on December 2, 1978, Nelly was the third child of working-class Portuguese immigrants. Her parents, Antonio, a stone mason, and Maria Manuela, a hotel maid, had moved to Canada in the late Sixties from their village in Portugal's Azores islands. The Latin roots the singer displays in spades on Whoa Nelly extend back to her childhood gigs when, dressed in Portuguese folk outfits and singing songs from her parents' homeland, she would perform at neighbourhood festivals and community events.

In her teens Nelly was playing the trombone in a marching band by day and blossoming into a hardcore hip-hop devotee by night. After graduating from high school aged 17, she moved to Toronto and formed the trip-hop outfit, Neltsar. The band gained a sizeable following and won the interest of local record labels, but the singer recognised that her time had not yet come. "Inside I didn't feel ready," she says, "so I decided to move back home to Victoria and live with my parents again."

Back in Victoria, Nelly took creative writing courses, which she paid for out of the wages she earned working as a cleaner with her mum. The hard work paid off and her songs and playing improved significantly. When she returned to Toronto in 2000 to record a demo for the record company DreamWorks, all the songs on her critically acclaimed debut album Whoa Nelly were written and ready to go.

Nelly landed the deal and the rest, as they say, is history. Well almost. Initially radio stations refused to play her music, claiming its eclectic blend of pop, hip-hop, boss nova and melancholy Portuguese fado was difficult to categorize. But as soon as I'm Like A Bird hit the airwaves, the album starting shifting. With the release of her second single, Turn Off The Radio, sales moved up yet another gear, and by the beginning of 2002 she was headlining her own concert tour.

The young singer has yet to take up the full rock n'roll lifestyle, however, and although she loves California, Canada remains her home. She currently lives alone in a loft in Toronto.

[http://www.hellomagazine.com/profiles/nellyfurtado/]

[Nat]

aww, thanxx ya so much

[sayitright]

Thx for posting lol Turn off the radio? I think the person meant Shit on the Radio or Turn off the lights

[Maca (Mod)]

Turn Off The Radio HAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!

[Do-Rithm]

Thanks for this!

[masterdarth]

Thanks for the article.