Nelly Furtado - Honesty

The year is 2006. Nelly Furtado is one of the biggest pop stars in the world, having sold 10 million copies of her classic album “Loose”. It is assumed that she will continue to crank out more hit songs and albums in the years to follow, but that has not come to fruition in the 18 years since. With the exception of the random collaboration, Nelly has been almost completely absent from the Hot 100 in the last 17 years. Through a stint as an independent artist and a comeback album in 2017 that barely dented the charts, Nelly recently returned after a long seven-year hiatus with her latest album “7”. However, after two lead singles that were promising but ultimately commercial failures, Nelly seems to be back to square one with her third and latest single “Honesty”.

“Honesty” sounds so generic and dated with extremely immature lyrics for a woman turning 46 this year. I know, it’s dance-pop so the lyrics are not supposed to evoke Shakespeare but it’s pretty weird hearing a middle-aged woman sound like a Gen Zer in a desperate bid to get a hit. Nelly, your core fans are now all in their 30s and 40s so you can stop pandering to folks who don’t remember your glory days from way back when they were still in diapers!

The only good part of the track is Nelly’s instantly recognizable voice. She still sounds as good as she did when she broke through with her smash debut “I’m Like A Bird” back in 2000. Compare that song’s lyrical content to this one and you have to wonder what is going on here! When Nelly first teased her comeback in 2023, many millennials were instantly curious about how a Furtado album in 2024 would sound like. Long known as a music innovator (see “Get Ur Freak On (Remix)” with Missy Elliot), there were high hopes when she released “7”, her seventh album after nearly a decade away.

Unfortunately, the album is a solid but forgettable collection of brainless dance-pop that’s perfect for festivals and the club but doesn’t add anything to Furtado’s legacy. I guess it’s fun, no-frills music that makes her happy, but this is the music industry! This album barely charted in a few countries and failed to chart at all in the US and her native Canada! My advice to Nelly is to run back to the studio with Timbaland and create an updated version of “Loose” but geared towards an older millennial audience. Nelly claimed to have written hundreds of songs for “7”, so the woman is clearly a hard worker. Here’s hoping this album campaign ends quickly and she can hop back into the studio for a quick follow-up!