Nelly Kim Furtado is a well known singer, songwriter, record producer and instrumentalist. Born in the Canadian city of Victoria, British Columbia on December 2nd, 1978, she also holds Portuguese citizenship.

Her father is Antonio Jose Furtado and her mother is Maria Manuela. They were born in Sao Miguel Island and in the late 1960's, immigrated to Canada.

Nelly Furtado was named after the Soviet gymnast, Nellie Kim.

In the year 2000, she gained stardom when her debut album “Whoa Nelly” was released.

Needless to say, the album was a massive hit and by August 2006, five million copies were sold.

Nelly Furtado is known for experimenting with different instruments, genres, sounds, languages and vocal styles.

Nellie Furtado gave birth to a daughter, Nevis in Toronto on September 20 in the year 2003. Her father is DJ Jasper Gahunia. For several years, Furtado and Gahunia were friends and remained together for 4 years until their breakup in the year 2005.

Based on Blender magazine reports, Furtado has stated that she continues to remain friends with Gahunia and have also taken joint responsibility to raise their daughter, Nevis.

In the year 2003, Nelly Furtado's second album, Folklore, was released. She dedicated the final track of the album “Childhood Dreams” to her daughter, Nevis.

In the year 2006, Nelly Furtado was asked by Genre magazine if she had ever felt an attraction to women. Furtado gave an affirmative response saying that “Women are beautiful and sexy”. This kind of bold statement made people wonder about her bisexuality, but Furtado clarified later that she was very straight forward and open about her statements.

Nelly Furtado also said that she rejected half a million dollars offer to pose nude in Playboy, an offer not give to just anyone.

In the year 2007, Nelly Furtado was engaged to Cuban sound engineer, Demacio “Demo” Castellon, who had worked with her on her album “Loose”.

On September 9th 2007, Nelly Furtado performed at the MTV Video Music Awards with Timbaland and Justin Timberlake.

Her music has been greatly influenced by Toronto, her current city. Furtado calls Toronto “the most multicultural city in the entire world”.

When Furtado was in middle school, she had a stint in acting.. She featured in the episodes “Some Buried Bones” of CSI: NY and “ONE LIFE TO LIVE”.

In the year 2006, Nelly Furtado along with Enrique Iglesias, Kelly Rowland, Kanye West, Snoop Dogg and Kelly Clarkson teamed up with MTV, BET and NIKE to perform an AIDS awareness concert in South Africa.

Teaming up with world renowned celebrities, Alicia Keys and Justin Timberlake, Nelly Furtado has hosted a program about AIDS on MTV.

Nelly Furtado is a great talent and not expected to disappear any time soon. Her singing career continues to flourish and has already become a staple in the world of contemporary music.