Victoria-raised Nelly Furtado sets the stage for her first new album in seven years

Following a seven-year absence from the studio, Nelly Furtado has her comeback ready for liftoff— and the Victoria-born Grammy Award winner is doing it with a big push that has officially begun.

Furtado, 45, announced Thursday she will release her new album, 7, on Sept. 20. It’s the first full-length from Furtado since 2017’s The Ride, which saw the Mount Doug high grad struggling to find her place in a nuevo-pop world. The release of 7 is expected to return the I’m Like a Bird hitmaker to her previous post atop the sales charts, a comeback which began at midnight Thursday with the release of Corazón, a song that will appear on 7.

The track (which features Colombian duo Bomba Estéreo, and is sung in English and Spanish) has an international flavour not unlike her 2004 single, Força, which served as the official song of the 2004 European Football Championship.

Furtado has been active in recent months after years of relative quietude. She hosted the Juno Awards in March, and followed that with an appearance at Coachella during the mainstage set from Dom Dolla, with whom she collaborated on the 2023 single, Eat Your Man. Last month, Furtado co-headlined Germany’s Fest EURO alongside Ed Sheeran.

A chance encounter with Taylor Swift, whom she met backstage at the 2023 MTV Video Music Awards, inevitably played a role in exposing her to a new generation of pop music fans, though she was hardly in need of the help.

In 2023, Furtado’s music amassed 1.5 billion streams, pushing her career totals past the 20-billion mark.

Given that success, new music was inevitable. She spent four years making 7, and told NBC talk show hosts Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager on Thursday that “A lot of passion went [into] it. I’m elated. I’m thrilled.”

Making the record was an emotional experience for Furtado, a single mother who has three children. “Sacrifice is tied into the idea of being a mother,” Furtado said Thursday during an interview with Extra TV.

“It’s very hard to choose your art, and put that in the same equal space as your parenting. But as a woman, it’s important to chase your passions. My passion is music. My brain makes so much more sense when I’m creating and making music.”

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