It’s been 25 years since Nelly Furtado catapulted to stardom with her breakout single I’m Like A Bird.
The pop star, 46, performed some of the biggest songs of the early ’00s that still show up on our nostalgia playlists – like Promiscuous and Maneater – and some of her hits have been given a new lease on life on TikTok.
But after spending more than five years at the top of the charts, breaking records and winning awards, she practically vanished overnight.
Watch the video above.
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Now she has re-emerged like a phoenix from the ashes – literally, wearing lime-green feathery sleeves in her outfit.
The noughties star captured the world’s attention with her recent performance at the Boardmaster’s Festival in the UK on August 9, 2025.
The I’m Like a Bird singer commanded the stage, wearing ruffled camo hot pants, a metallic green halter top, and the aforementioned sleeves.
She accesorised with silver chain necklaces, drop earrings, knee-high boots and a cool pair of black sunglasses.
The star even posted videos of herself interacting with fans as she sang.
It’s not her first appearance as of late, with the festival in Cornwall, England being the fifth stop of her Better Than Ever Summer Festival tour, traversing the UK and Europe.
The tour began on August 1 and saw her perform in Belgium, Ireland, Switzerland and Hungary so far, with many more to go until the end of the month when the tour ends.
But this was not her big return to the spotlight. That occurred two years ago with a surprise appearance at a US music festival.
Furtado wowed fans by joining Aussie musician Dom Dolla at Lollapalooza festival in Chicago in 2023, performing their collaboration Eat Your Man.
The Canadian singer also did a rendition of her smash hit Maneater, slyly asking the audience if they knew the song.
“I’d like to bring out a very special guest,” said Dolla midway through his set.
“Who knows Nelly Furtado?”, as shocked fans ran closer to the stage for a better view.
Dolla told Forbes she was the one who orchestrated their collab earlier in the year.
“She reached out to me out of the blue,” he said, “She said she was a fan of my music and wanted some help with her original records.
This wasn’t the first time the Canadian singer shared the stage with the Aussie DJ – she joined him for a performance at a music festival in Australia over New Years that year. After that, they began working together and Eat Your Man was born.
It marked the mum-of-three’s tentative return to mainstream media after her last album release, The Ride, in 2017.
So what happened to Nelly Furtado over the past few years? Here’s everything you should know about the former pop icon.
Why did Nelly Furtado disappear?
Nelly Furtado took a step back from music and the public spotlight after a nervous breakdown in 2006.
“I had a nervous breakdown on stage,” she told the Daily Mail in 2017.
“I was on the Loose tour [2007] and my daughter was with me – I was being a mum and a singer on the road. I was exhausted.”
“Then one night I went on stage and I suddenly realised how stressed out I was. I actually cried my way through the first two songs. I took a break from music and went home. And I realised that being at home and having the whole family experience was what I was seeking.”
She said she shot to such heights of fame so quickly that she couldn’t handle it.
“It was too much too soon,” she added.
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“After two years of intense touring and partying, I’d spend hours alone in my LA home, just staring at the floor. I felt like a fraud, believing that people liked me for my image and not my music.”
She released a Spanish language album in 2009 called Mi Plan, and another album in 2012, The Spirit Indestructible – after which she took a five-year break.
Furtado spent those five years travelling and doing a lot of charity work with Save The Children.
In 2017, she released an independent album, The Ride, under her own record label. It only sold 1,814 copies in its first week in the US.
After releasing her independent album in 2017, it’s unlikely that Furtado will ever return to mainstream music.
She decided to start her own record label because she feels very passionately about artists owning the master recordings of their own songs –– an issue Taylor Swift has spoken about at length.
She told Forbes: “Becoming independent and owning this new record has been very pivotal for me because I’m able to own everything that I sing.”
Where is Nelly Furtado today?
After becoming an independent artist, Furtado launched a re-release of her debut album, Woah Nelly, in 2020 releasing an expanded edition of 22 tracks to digital and streaming platforms.
She continued to collaborate with musicians and perform at festivals all over the world, such as with German duo Quarterhead on a remix of her song All Good Things (Come to an End), Swedish singer Tove Lo and British DJ SG Lewis on her single Love Bites , Colombian band Bomba Estéreo on her single Corazón, and much more.
In September 2024, she released her seventh studio album, 7.
Her latest release was in May in the form of a collaboration with Don Diablo on the single Doing Nothin, which interpolates sections of her 2012 single Parking Lot.
What is Nelly Furtado’s net worth?
Because Furtado holds song-writing and producer credits on her songs – some of which were the biggest of their decade – she continues to make a lot of money off her first few albums.
Estimates put her net worth at around $US 40 million ($61.3 million).
What happened to Nelly Furtado and Timbaland?
Ever since Timbaland and Furtado worked on her 2006 album Loose together, they’ve been close friends – and that friendship still remains today.
In 2017 Timbaland surprised contestants on the TV show The Pop Game with a mentoring session from the pop star.
In 2023, they partnered with Justin Timberlake for a new song, Keep Going Up, sixteen years after the release of their hit song, Give It to Me.
What is Nelly Furtado’s nationality?
Furtado was born in Canada to Brazilian parents who migrated to North America in the 1960s.
She first began singing in Portuguese as a child and performed in a Portuguese marching band as a teen.
Nelly Furtado’s relationship history
The Promiscuous singer married sound engineer Demacio Castellon in 2008, though the pair divorced in 2016. She has one daughter, Nevis Chetan, born in 2003 from a previous relationship. She also has a daughter, seven, and a son, six, with American rapper Jerry.
What does Nelly Furtado look like now?
The singer has been outspoken about body neutrality and self confidence, sharing a picture of herself in an orange bikini in January 2025 to mark the New Year.
“HAVE A BODY NEUTRAL 2025, 😉, BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY, LOVE WITH EVERY INCH OF YOUR HEART ♥️THANKS FOR ALL THE MEMORIES THIS YEAR 🙏🏼” she wished for her fans.
“This year I became aware of the aesthetic pressure of my work in a brand new way , while simultaneously I experienced new levels of self -love and genuine confidence from within,” she said.
She clarified she “never had any face or body surgeries or augmentation” except for veneers, and was transparent about her use of face and body tape to give a snatched look at events, as well as professional hair, makeup, and clothes stylists, and a spray tan.
“Express yourself freely, celebrate your individuality and know that it’s perfectly OK to be OK with what you see in the mirror, and it’s also OK to want something different,” she told her fans.
“We are all cute little humans just bouncing around the earth looking for hugs.”
When was I’m Like A Bird released?
Arguably her best-known single, I’m Like A Bird was Furtado’s first single, released in 2000, on her debut album Woah Nelly.
That album also included bangers like Turn Off The Light and Hey, Man.
