Loose (Nelly Furtado album)

Untitled

Loose is the third album by Canadian pop singer-songwriter Nelly Furtado, released by Geffen Records on June 9 2006 (see 2006 in music) outside North America, on June 12, 2006 in the United Kingdom and on June 20 2006 in North America. Timbaland and his then-protégé Danja produced the bulk of the album, which incorporates influences of R&B, hip hop, rock and 1980s music. Loose reached high positions on charts across the world, and according to a November 2007 press release, it had sold more than eight million copies worldwide.

The album was released in several editions and supported by the Get Loose Tour, which is the subject of the concert DVD Loose the Concert. Eight singles were released from the album, including the U.S. number-one singles "Promiscuous" and "Say It Right", which received Grammy Award nominations for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, respectively.

Style

Furtado said that with the release of her albums before Loose, she had wanted to prove herself as a musician and earn respect from certain listeners through using many different instruments on an album, which most hip-hop musicians didn't do. After she believed she had accomplished that, she felt she had freedom to make the type of music she "really love[d]". Furtado said her previous problem with hip hop was that she didn't think it was good enough to base one of her albums on, but then asked herself why she was being "pretentious". The album represents her separating from such notions and, in her words, "jumping in the deep end of the pool—'Ahh, screw it, this is fun!'". Furtado said she considers herself "all over the map" and promiscuous musically because she isn't faithful to one style.

For the first time, Furtado worked with a variety of record producers and followed a more collaborative approach in creating the album. Mostly produced by Timbaland and Danja, Loose showcases her experimenting with a more R&B-hip hop sound and, as she put it, the "surreal, theatrical elements of '80s music". She has categorized the album's sound as punk-hop, which she describes as Eurythmics-influenced "modern, poppy, spooky music" and stated that "there's a mysterious, after-midnight vibe to [it] that's extremely visceral". She attributed the youthful sound of the album to the presence of her two-year old daughter. Furtado has described the album as "more urban, more American, more hip-hop, [and] more simplified" than her earlier work, which she said was more layered and textured because she "tend[s] to overthink things". In contrast, during her studio time with Timbaland, she said she was "in the VIP boys club of just letting go" and being more impulsive.

During the recording of Loose, Furtado listened to several electro and rock musicians including Bloc Party, System of a Down, Queens of the Stone Age, Metric and Death from Above 1979, some of whom influenced the "rock sound" present on the album and the "coughing, laughing, distorted bass lines" that were kept in the songs deliberately. According to her, the music by such bands is "very loud and has a garage theme" to it, some of which she felt she captured on the album, with which she wanted to attack the listener and have it sound "like being tackled in football". Furtado has said rock music is "rhythmic again" and hip hop-influenced after it had become "so churning and boring." Because the mixing engineers were aware of Timbaland and Furtado's rock influences, the songs were mixed on a mixing board in the studio instead of "the fancy mixer at the end". Furtado said she preferred the louder volume that process gave to the album because she wanted it to sound like her demo tapes, which she prefers to her finished albums. "It didn't have that final wash over it; it didn't have the final pressing at the end, save for a couple sounds", she said.

The "off-the-cuff" conclusion to production was one of the reasons the album was titled Loose. According to Furtado, instead of "pristine stuff", the album features "really raw" elements such as distorted bass lines, laughter from studio outtakes and general "room for error", which she said is one of the reasons it is titled Loose; it was named partly after the spontaneous decisions she made when creating the album. The album is also called Loose because it is "the opposite of calculated" and came naturally to Furtado and Timbaland; she called him her "distant musical cousin because he was always pushing boundaries and always carving out his own path", which she believed she was doing with Loose. "I think you have to keep surprising people as an artist, and I like that—I love doing that", she said.

Themes

Loose was also named partly for the R&B girl group TLC, who Furtado said she admires for "taking back their sexuality, showing they were complete women." She said she wanted the album to be "assertive and cool" and "sexy but fun", like TLC, MC Lyte, Queen Latifah and Janet Jackson, who inspired Furtado because, as she put it, she was "comfortable in her sexuality and womanhood" when her 1993 single "That's the Way Love Goes" was released. Furtado has said Loose isn't as much about the lyrics, which aren't included in the liner notes, as it is about "indulging in pleasures—whether it's dancing or lovemaking." According to her, she wasn't trying to be sexy with the album—"I think I just am sexy now", she said.

The opening track, "Afraid" (featuring rapper Attitude), is a description of Furtado's fear of what people think of her, and she has said the chorus reminds her of "walking down the hall in high school ... because you live from the outside in. Now that I'm an adult, I care about the inside of me ... Before I said I didn't care about what people thought about me, but I really did." She compared "Maneater" to how people become "hot on themselves" when dancing in their underwear in front of a mirror. "Promiscuous" (featuring Timbaland) was inspired by a flirting exchange Furtado had with Attitude, who co-wrote the song. She has characterised the fifth track, "Showtime", as "a proper R&B slow jam".

The album also features more downbeat songs, and The Sunday Times wrote that it "has a surprising sadness to it." Seventh track "Te Busqué", which features Latin singer Juanes, is about Furtado's experiences with depression, which she said she has had periodically since she was around seventeen-years old. Furtado said she was unsure what "Say It Right" is about, but that it encapsulates her feeling when she wrote it and "taps into this other sphere"; in an interview for The Sunday Times, it was mentioned that it is about her breakup with DJ Jasper Gahunia, the father of her daughter. Another song inspired by the end of their relationship is "In God's Hands".

Production history

Furtado began work on Loose by holding with emcee Jellystone what she referred to as a "hip-hop workshop", in which they would "write rhymes, dissect them, and try different flows over beats." The first producers she worked with were Track & Field—who had co-produced her first two albums, Whoa, Nelly! (2000) and Folklore (2003)—and by May 2005, she had collaborated with Swollen Members and K'naan. She worked with Nellee Hooper in London on reggae-oriented material, and with Lester Mendez in Los Angeles on acoustic songs. One of the tracks Mendez helped to create is "Te Busqué", which is co-written by and features Juanes, who collaborated with Furtado on his 2002 song "Fotografía". Two other tracks Furtado co-wrote with Mendez, "What I Wanted" and "Undercover", were released as bonus tracks. During her time in in Los Angeles, she worked with Rick Nowels, who co-wrote and produced "In God's Hands" and "Somebody to Love".

In Miami, Florida, Furtado collaborated with Pharrell Williams (who introduced her to reggaeton and who gave her a "shout-out" in his 2005 single "Can I Have It like That") and Scott Storch (with whom she recorded a "straight-up rap song"), before entering the studio with Timbaland. He and his protégé at the time, Danja, co-produced eight of the tracks, with another produced solely by Danja. For some of the beats on the songs, Timbaland finished work on ones already present in the studio and that were half-developed or just "nucleuses"; the rest of the beats were "jammed together" from scratch.

Furtado recorded around forty tracks for Loose, deciding which she would include based on the sonics of the album—she called Timbaland "a sonic extraterrestrial" who came up with a sequence of songs that flowed, and said that the one she had devised was supposedly unsatisfactory. She performed an unreleased track, "Stars", on the Get Loose Tour, saying at the Nottingham, UK date that it was being recorded again and would feature on her MySpace profile and official website. She recorded an unreleased collaboration with Justin Timberlake, "Crowd Control", which she described as "kind of sexy" and "a cute, clubby, upbeat, fun track". Other songs considered for inclusion on the album include "Chill Boy", "Friend of Mine", "Go", "Hands in the Air", "Pretty Boy", "Vice" and "Weak".

Furtado said in her diary on her official website that she recorded a remix of "Maneater" with rapper Lil' Wayne; it was never released, but she used the instrumental of the song during many television performances of "Maneater". A version of "All Good Things (Come to an End)" featuring vocals by Coldplay lead singer Chris Martin, who co-wrote the song, was not released after a request from Martin's label, EMI. The song was released on the album, but only Furtado's vocals are featured. In late June 2006, the original version was leaked onto the internet.

Criticism and controversy

Furtado's image

Considerable attention was generated by the more sexual image of Furtado presented in promotion and publicity for the album, and in particular the music videos for "Promiscuous" and "Maneater", in which she dances around with her midriff exposed. According to Maclean's magazine, some said that Furtado's progression was a natural transformation of a pop singer; others believed that she had "sold out" in an effort to garner record sales, particularly after her second album was a commercial failure in comparison to her first.

Maclean's wrote that her makeover "seems a bit forced" and contrasted her with singers such as Madonna and Emily Haines of Metric: "[they] seem to be completely in control, even somewhat intimidating in their sexuality: they've made a calculated decision for commercial and feminist reasons. In contrast, Furtado's new, overt sexuality comes off as unoriginal — overdone by thousands of pouty pop stars with a quarter of Furtado's natural talent ... the revamping feels as if it's been imposed rather than chosen by the unique, articulate singer we've seen in the past." Dose magazine wrote that Furtado's new "highly sexualized" image was manufactured, and noted the involvement in the album's development of Geffen labelhead Jimmy Iovine, who helped to develop the The Pussycat Dolls, a girl group known for their sexually suggestive dance routines. The writer also criticised Furtado's discussion of her buttocks and apparent rejection of feminism in a Blender magazine interview, writing "Girls, do you hear that churning? Those are the ideas of Gloria Steinem turning in their grave."

A writer for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation said that cynics could attribute Furtado's commercial success with Loose to her "amped-up sex appeal", but added that the failure of Janet Jackson's album Damita Jo (2004) indicated such a move was not infallible, and that Furtado was "still demure compared to many of her competitors"—she avoided sporting lingerie or performing "Christina Aguilera-style gyrations or calisthenics" in the "Promiscuous" and "Maneater" videos. "Despite its dramatic arrival ... Furtado's new image doesn’t feel calculated", he said. "[She] seems to be thinking less and feeling more, to the benefit of her music." The Village Voice published a negative review of Furtado's performance on Saturday Night Live, her first high-profile television appearance to promote the album; it wrote that it "probably looked like a blatant and clueless sellout move" and "a desperate attempt to jump on the teenpop train" to audiences who hadn't paid attention to her since 2000, and compared her makeover to that of folk-pop singer Jewel with her 2003 single "Intuition". The writer continued that when Furtado's experimentation with different genres since her first album was taken into consideration, "[i]n that context, [Loose] works as another stage in the career of an artist who can't/won't stick with one genre or persona and whose volatile whims don't have a whole lot to do with what might be selling right now ... she's more like Gwen Stefani".

Plagiarism allegations

Further information: [[:2007 Timbaland plagiarism controversy]]

In early 2007, a video hosted on YouTube led to reports that the song "Do It", and the Timbaland-produced ringtone "Block Party" that inspired it, used—without authorisation—the melody from Finnish demoscene musician Janne "Tempest" Suni's song "Acidjazzed Evening", winner of the Assembly 2000 oldskool music competition. Timbaland used the record of C64 adaptation of the song written by Glenn Rune Gallefoss (GRG). Timbaland admitted sampling the song, but said that he had no time to research its intellectual owner.

In January 2008, Turkish newspapers reported that Kalan Müzik, the record label that released Turkish folk singer Muhlis Akarsu's album Ya Dost Ya Dost, pressed charges against Furtado for the Loose track "Wait for You", which label officials said features the bağlama instrumental part of Akarsu's song "Allah Allah Desem Gelsem".

Critical reception

See also: List of Nelly Furtado awards

Loose received positive reviews from critics, receiving a 71/100 rating on the review scores aggregate website Metacritic. musicOMH and All Music Guide cited the "revitalising" effect of Timbaland on Furtado's music, and The Guardian called it "slick, smart and surprising." All Music Guide wrote in its review, "It's on this final stretch of the album that the Furtado and Timbaland pairing seems like a genuine collaboration, staying true to the Nelly of her first two albums, but given an adventurous production that helps open her songs up ... Timbaland has revitalized Nelly Furtado both creatively and commercially with Loose".

At the 2007 Juno Awards, the album won Album of the Year, and Furtado and "Promiscuous" received Artist of the Year and Single of the Year, respectively. She won her first BRIT Award—Best International Female—in 2007.

Promotion and chart performance

Loose debuted at number one on the Canadian Albums Chart, selling more than 34,000 copies in its first week, at that time the year's strongest debut for a Canadian artist. In late July, after Furtado embarked on a short tour of Canada and made a guest appearance on the television show Canadian Idol, the album returned to number one; it subsequently stayed near the top of the albums until late January 2007, when it reached number one again for two weeks, during a slow sales week. It was the third best-selling album of 2006 in Canada, and the highest selling by a female solo artist, with 291,700 copies sold. The CRIA certified Loose five times platinum in May 2007 for shipments of more than 500,000 copies. It has stayed in the top twenty for the fifty-seven weeks it has been on the chart.

The album debuted at number one on the U.S. Billboard 200 with sales of 219,000; it was certified platinum by the RIAA and ranked sixty-fourth on the Billboard 2006 year-end chart. It exited the U.S. top ten in August 2006 but re-entered it in March 2007, and according to Nielsen SoundScan in October 2007, it had sold two million units. It ranked thirty-second on the Billboard 2007 year-end chart. In the United Kingdom, Loose sold 33,000 copies in its first week, entering the albums chart at number five; in its forty-third week, it reached number four, and it was certified double platinum for shipments to retailers of more than 600,000 copies. As of July 2007, it had sold roughly 827,000 copies in the UK. It was certified two times platinum in Australia for more than 140,000 units shipped; it reached number four there and was placed forty-fourth on the Australian ARIA list of 2006 bestsellers. The album entered the chart in Germany at number one, spent a record forty-nine weeks in the German top ten, and was certified five times platinum. Loose became the most successful album in Germany since the establishment of the Longplay charts in 1992. It reached number one on the European Top 100 Albums chart in early 2007, spending ten non-consecutive weeks at number one.

Worldwide, Loose was the thirteenth best-selling album of 2006 according to Media Traffic, with 3.07 million copies sold during its time on the United World Chart. By March 2007, it had been certified gold or platinum in twenty-five countries. Furtado had previously said she believed Loose was "going to have the biggest reaction of all my albums". It was re-issued in early March 2007 in Europe, Latin America and Asia. The album was the fourth best-selling album of 2007, according to Media Traffic. According to a Geffen Records press release, Loose had sold more than seven million copies by November 2007.

Singles

Furtado embarked on a world tour, the Get Loose Tour, in support of the album.

In April 2006, a remix of "No Hay Igual" featuring Calle 13 was issued as a club single in the U.S. During the same period, "Promiscuous" (featuring Timbaland) was released for digital download in North America. "Promiscuous" debuted on the Canadian Singles Chart in late May and reached number one in early June, becoming Furtado's first number-one single. Also in June, it was Furtado's first single to top the U.S. Hot 100 and was released in Australia, where it reached the top five. The lead single in Europe and Latin America, "Maneater", was released in late May to early June 2006. It became Furtado's first single to top the UK Singles Chart and made the top ten in other countries; it reached the top five in Germany, and the top twenty in France and Latin America.

The second single in Europe, "Promiscuous", was released in late August to early September 2006 and performed less well than "Maneater". It peaked inside the top five in the UK and the top ten in other countries, including Germany, and it reached the top twenty in France. During the same period, "Maneater" began its run as the second single in North America; it was not as successful as "Promiscuous", reaching number twenty-two in Canada and the top twenty in the U.S., though it became a top five single on the ARIA Singles Chart. The second single in Latin America was "No Hay Igual" in late 2006; it performed less well than "Maneater", failing to chart inside the Latin America Top 40.

Releases of the third North American single, "Say It Right", and the third Europe single, "All Good Things (Come to an End)", took place in November and December, and the third Latin America single, "Promiscuous", was released in January 2007. "Say It Right" went to number one in the U.S. and on the Nielsen BDS airplay chart in Canada (where it was not given a commercial release), and it reached the top five in Australia. "All Good Things (Come to an End)" reached number one on the pan-European singles chart and the top five in the UK, and it was the album's most successful single in Germany, where it topped the chart, and in France, where it became a top ten hit. After the release of "Say It Right" in Europe in March 2007, the single reached the top five in Germany and the top ten in the UK, where it was a download-only release. The video for "All Good Things (Come to an End)" was released in North America during this period. "All Good Things (Come to an End)" peaked in the top five in Canada and in the top twenty in Australia, though it only reached the lower half of the U.S. Hot 100.

The album's fifth UK single was "In God's Hands", and the fifth single in North America was "Do It". In May 2007, Furtado mentioned the possibility of a sixth or seventh single, mentioning the examples of Nickelback's All the Right Reasons and The Pussycat Dolls' PCD as albums that were being supported by seventh singles at the time. Furtado said she liked the possibility because she thought Loose was good and "want[ed] people to hear as much of it as possible" before she took time off.

Two other songs, "Te Busqué" and "No Hay Igual", were released as singles in other regions of the world. "Te Busqué" was the lead single in Spain because of the limited success hip-hop/R&B-influenced songs in the style of "Promiscuous" and "Maneater" achieved in the country. It reached number one on the Los 40 Principales radio chart in December 2006. It was not released in the United States, but it was given airplay on Latin music radio stations and reached the top forty on Billboard's Latin Pop Airplay chart. The "No Hay Igual" remix featuring Calle 13 was released in Latin America, and the music video debuted in September.

Performances and touring

Nelly performing at Rock am Ring 2006.

During the promotion of Loose, Furtado performed at various major music festivals and award shows. In Europe, she appeared at Rock am Ring and Rock-im-Park in Germany and the Pinkpop Festival in the Netherlands in June 2006. She performed in Canada at the Calgary Stampede and the Ottawa Bluesfest in July, and at the Ovation Music Festival in September. Shortly after her August 2006 performance at the Summer Sonic in Japan, she sang at the Teen Choice Awards. In November, she contributed to the entertainment during the World Music Awards, the American Music Awards and the 94th Grey Cup halftime show. She performed at the 2007 NRJ Music Awards, held in January 2007.

Furtado embarked on a world concert tour, the Get Loose Tour, on February 16 in the UK in support of the album; the tour is scheduled to include thirty-one dates in Europe and Canada, with additional shows to be announced for the U.S., Japan, Australia and Latin America. Furtado has described the show as a "full sensory experience" with "a beginning, middle and end ... [it] takes you on a journey", also stressing the importance of crowd involvement and "spontaneity and rawness, because those are my roots, you know? I started by doing club shows, and that's the energy I love, the raw club energy of just feeling like you're rocking out." Though Furtado said choreographed dance routines were to be included in the show, she described it as "music-based ... Everything else is just to keep it sophisticated and sensual and fun." Furtado said she hoped to have Chris Martin, Juanes, Justin Timberlake, Timbaland and Calle 13 to guest on the tour, and have a "revolving door" of opening acts with Latin musicians opening in the U.S.

A blog for the tour was established on the website YouTube.

Track listing

All tracks produced by Timbaland and Danja except as follows: track 5 produced by Danja; track 6 produced by Timbaland, Danja and Nisan Stewart; track 7 produced by Lester Mendez; track 10 produced by Rick Nowels and Nelly Furtado.

Standard edition

1. "Afraid" featuring Attitude (Nelly Furtado, Tim "Attitude" Clayton, Nate Hills, Tim Mosley) – 3:35
2. "Maneater" (Furtado, Jim Beanz, Hills, Mosley) – 4:19

   Interlude – 0:06

3. "Promiscuous" featuring Timbaland (Furtado, Clayton, Mosley, Hills) – 4:02
4. "Glow" (Furtado, Hills, Mosley, Nisan Stewart) – 4:02
5. "Showtime" (Furtado, Hills) – 4:04

   Interlude – 0:11

6. "No Hay Igual" (Furtado, Hills, Mosley, Stewart) – 3:35
7. "Te Busqué" featuring Juanes (Furtado, Juanes, Lester Mendez) – 3:38
8. "Say It Right" (Furtado, Hills, Mosley) – 3:43
9. "Do It" (Furtado, Stewart, Mosley) – 3:41
10. "In God's Hands" (Furtado, Rick Nowels) – 4:12

    Interlude – 0:41

11. "Wait for You" (Furtado, Hills, Mosley) – 5:11
12. "All Good Things (Come to an End)" (Furtado, Hills, Chris Martin, Mosley) – 5:11

The iTunes edition has the interludes as separate tracks, and CD versions have the interludes attached to the previous track.

Bonus tracks

11. "What I Wanted" (Nelly Furtado, Mendez) – 4:37 including "Wait for You" interlude (Japan/France bonus)
12. "Somebody to Love" (Furtado, Nowels) – 4:56 (international bonus)

    Produced by Rick Nowels and Nelly Furtado

14. "Te Busqué" (Spanish version) featuring Juanes - 3:38 (Canada/U.S./Latin America/Spain bonus) ¹
14. "All Good Things (Come to an End)" featuring Zero Assoluto – 4:25 (Italy bonus)
14. "Maneater" featuring Da Weasel – 3:32 (Portugal bonus)
15. "Let My Hair Down" (Furtado, Gerald Eaton, Brian West) – 3:38 (Ireland/Japan/UK bonus)
15. "Undercover" (Furtado, Mendez) – 3:56 (iTunes bonus)

    Produced by Track & Field and Neil H. Pogue

15. "All Good Things (Come to an End)" (live at Radio Comercial Lisbon) – 3:50 (Portugal bonus)
16. "Maneater" (live at Radio Comercial Lisbon) – 3:22 (Portugal bonus)
16. "Runaway" (Furtado, Nowels) - 4:14 (iTunes bonus)

    Produced by Nellee Hooper

¹ In Spain, the Spanish version of "Te Busqué" is track seven, and the English version is the bonus track.

International Tour edition (CD2)

1. "Let My Hair Down" – 3:38
2. "Undercover" – 3:56
3. "Runaway" – 4:14
4. "Te Busqué" (Spanish version) – 3:38
5. "No Hay Igual" (remix) featuring Calle 13 – 3:40
6. "All Good Things (Come to an End)" (remix) featuring Rea Garvey – 3:57
7. "Crazy" (live Radio 1 Music session) – 3:25
8. "Maneater" (live from Sprint Music Series) – 3:00
9. "Promiscuous" (live at The Orange Lounge) featuring Saukrates – 4:05

Spanish / U.S. Limited Summer edition

14. "Te Busqué" (Spanish version) featuring Juanes – 3:38
15. "En las Manos de Dios" ("In God's Hands" Spanish version) – 4:30
16. "Lo Bueno Siempre Tiene un Final" ("All Good Things (Come to an End)" Spanish version) – 4:25
17. "Dar" ("Try" Spanish version) – 4:40
18. "No Hay Igual" featuring Calle 13 ¹ – 3:40

¹ On the Spanish re-release (September 2007) only.

Loose Mini DVD

The Loose Mini DVD was released only in Germany.

1. "In God's Hands" (music video) - 4:12
2. "Maneater" (music video) - 5:13
3. "Promiscuous" (music video) - 3:59
4. "All Good Things (Come to an End)" (music video) - 3:46
5. "Say It Right" (music video) - 4:02
6. "Try" (music video) - 4:39

Singles

#	Title	Released	Produced by
1.	"No Hay Igual"	April, 2006 (Europe)	Timbaland, Danja, Nisan Stewart
2.	"Promiscuous" featuring Timbaland	April, 2006 (North America)	Timbaland, Danja
3.	"Maneater"	June 5, 2006 (Europe)	Timbaland, Nate Hills
4.	"Te Busqué" featuring Juanes	July, 2006 (Spain)	Lester Mendez
5.	"Say It Right"	October 31, 2006 (U.S. radio)	Timbaland, Danja
6.	"All Good Things (Come to an End)"	November 17, 2006 (European Union)	Timbaland, Danja
7.	"In God's Hands"	June 30, 2007 (Europe)	Nelly Furtado, Rick Nowels
8.	"Do It"	July 24, 2007 (U.S. radio)	Timbaland, Danja

• "No Hay Igual", the first single from Loose which was written by Furtado, Tim "Timbaland" Mosley, Nate "Danja" Hills and Nisan Stewart, and produced by Timbaland, Danja and Stewart and it saw Furtado collaborating with hip-hop Puerto Rican band leader, Calle 13. The music video of the song was filmed on June 26, 2006 in Sector La Perla, San Juan with reggaeton style featuring the leader of Calle 13 René Pérez (also know as Residente). Pérez said that the single gave Furtado and Calle 13 the chance to become more popular in Europe, a goal of particular interest for Furtado because she is from a Portuguese family. It was directed by Israel Lugo and Gabriel Coss, photographed by Sonnel Velazquez and produced by María Estades.
• "Promiscuous", her second single from the album and the first U.S. number-one hit, it was written by Timothy "Attitude" Clayton, Timbaland and Danja, and produced by Timbaland and Danja. It was one of the first songs Furtado wrote with labelmate Timothy "Attitude" Clayton. Furtado called their teamwork something she "had never done before" because she saw the writing process as "extremely freeing" because of his different approach and style. The song's music video was directed by Little X and features cameo appearances by Keri Hilson, Bria Myles and Justin Timberlake. The song earned Furtado a 2007 Grammy Award nomination for the Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals category.
• "Maneater", the third single, it became one of Nelly Furtado's most popular singles, topping the singles charts in Poland and the United Kingdom, and reaching the top ten across much of Continental Europe but it was less commercially successful than the first single "Promiscuous". The "Maneater" music video, was directed by Anthony Mandler. "Maneater" was nominated for a 2006 MTV Europe Music Award for Best Song. It was also awarded a 2007 NRJ Music Award for Best International Song. "Maneater" got favorable reception by music critics. Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone stated that while not a Hall & Oates cover, the song "bumps hard enough to qualify as a sequel, and that's high praise indeed."
• "Te Busqué", the album's first single in Spain, and as the fourth in Latin America. The song was not officially released in the United States, but it was given airplay on Latin music radio stations and reached number twenty four on Billboard's Latin Pop Airplay chart. It features the Colombian musician Juanes, their second collaboration after the number-one single Fotografía. Furtado originally wrote the song in mid-2006 to a beat that Lester Mendez had created, with the verses in English and the choruses in Spanish. Juanes agreed to co-write a duet with Furtado for the album, and he flew from Mexico to Toronto, Ontario, where they wrote the song in two days. Juanes played electric and acoustic guitar on the track.
• "Say It Right", Loose 's most successful single according to Media Traffic peakig at number two in the 2007 year-end chart with more than 7,300,00 points. The song entered the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 in late-November 2006 at number ninety-three, and it reached number one in its fourteenth week, becoming Furtado's second number-one single after "Promiscuous" (2006). The music video for "Say It Right" was directed by British duo Rankin & Chris and filmed at various locations in Los Angeles, California in late October 2006, shot back-to-back with the video for "All Good Things (Come to an End)" (the album's third single in Europe).
• "All Good Things (Come to an End)", the album's sixth single, it was written by Nelly Furtado, Timbaland, Danja and Chris Martin in her first collaboration with Coldplay's leader Chris Martin. It was conceived near the end of the recording of Loose. Furtado was at the 2005 MTV Video Music Awards ceremony, which was held in Miami, Florida in August, when she bumped into her old friend Chris Martin. The single was released in Europe in November 2006 and became considerably successful, reaching number four in the United Kingdom and the top five on most charts. In countries such as the Netherlands and Austria it peaked higher than "Maneater" and "Promiscuous", and it became Furtado's first number-one hit in Germany and the Netherlands; it reached number one in twenty countries. The "All Good Things" video was filmed in Puerto Rico, the album's third single in North America."
• "In God's Hands", the seventh single, was written and produced by Furtado and Rick Nowels. The song is about Furtado's breakup with DJ Jasper Gahunia, the father of her daughter. According to Furtado in May 2006, the song was "as far as I was willing to go in terms of pop right now". The single was less commercially successful than the album's previous singles, it reached the top twenty on the Dutch Top 40 and the Italian Singles Chart. It reached the top ten in Poland. In Germany, it debuted at number thirty-eight and peaked at number thirty-three. It peaked outside the top forty in Austria and Sweden.
• "Do It" is the Loose 's last single. It was written by Furtado, Timbaland and Nate Hills and produced by Timbaland and Hills. It features a prominent influence of 1980s dance-pop music. Timbaland allegedly plagiarized the synth line in "Do It" from an earlier track by Finnish demoscener Janne Suni—for more information, see 2007 Timbaland plagiarism controversy. The "Do It" music video was co-directed by Furtado and Aaron A., the documentarian on Furtado's Get Loose Tour. The shoot took place on location in Detroit, one of the stops on the tour.

Charts

See also: Nelly Furtado discography

Chart (2006/2007)	Peak position
Australian Albums Chart	4
Austrian Albums Chart	1
Belgian Albums Chart	1
Canadian Album Chart	1
Danish Albums Chart	4
Dutch Mega Album Top 100	2
European Top 100 Albums	1
French Albums Chart	5
German Albums Chart	1
Irish Albums Chart	2
Italian Albums Chart	3

Chart (2006/2007)	Peak position
Mexican Albums Chart	14
Mexican International Albums Chart	5
New Zealand RIANZ Albums Chart	1
Norwegian Albums Chart	4
Portuguese Albums Chart	3
Spanish Albums Chart	12
Swedish Albums Chart	6
Swiss Albums Chart	1
Taiwanese International Albums Chart	5
U.S. Billboard 200	1
UK Albums Chart	4
United World Chart	1

Year-End Charts (2007)	Peak position
German Albums Chart	1

Certifications

• 1× Diamond

Poland (OLIS): 102,000 units

• 5× Platinum

Canada (CRIA): 500,000 units

Germany (IFPI) 1,000,000 units

• 4× Platinum

Switzerland (IFPI): 120,000 units

• 3× Platinum

Europe (IFPI): 3,000,000 units

Ireland (IRMA) 45,000 units

• 2× Platinum

UK (BPI): 600,000 units

Australia (ARIA): 140,000 units

Portugal (AFP): 40,000 units

Austria (IFPI): 60,000 units

New Zealand (RIANZ): 30,000 units

• 1× Platinum

United States (RIAA): 2,000,000 units

Italy (FIMI): 80,000 units

Belgium (IFPI): 50,000 units

South Africa (RISA): 50,000 units

• Gold

Mexico (AMPROFON): 50,000 units

Brazil: (ABPD): 50,000 units

Spain (PROMUSICAE) 40,000 units

Sweden (IFPI): 20,000 units

Greece (IFPI): 7,500 units

Netherlands (NVPI): 35,000 units

Finland (IFPI): 15,000 units

Norway (IFPI): 15,000 units

Credits and personnel

• Nelly Furtado: vocals
• Attitude: vocals
• Rusty Anderson: acoustic guitar
• David Campbell: conductor
• Robert Cani: violin
• Luis Conte: percussion
• Larry Corbett: cello
• Maria DeLeon: violin
• Joel Derouin: violin
• Danja: drums, keyboard, piano
• Hilario Duran: piano
• Amen Garabedian: violin
• Gerado Hilera: violin
• Sharon Jackson: violin
• Dean Jarvis: bass guitar
• Juanes: acoustic guitar, electric guitar
• Suzie Katayama: cello
• Peter Kent: violin

• Greg Kurstin: keyboard
• Jamie Muhoberac: keyboard
• Rick Nowels: guitar, keyboard, piano
• Blake O: guitar
• Luis Orbego: percussion
• Stever Richards: cello
• Kevin Rudolph: guitar

• David Schommer: percussion
• Ramon Stagnaro: acoustic guitar, electric guitar
• Nisan Stewart: drums
• Daniel Stone: percussion
• Taku Hirano: percussion
• Timbaland: bass guitar, drums, keyboard, percussion
• Josefina Vergara: violin
• Dan Warner: guitar
• Joey Waronker: drums

Production

• Executive producers: Thom Panunzio, Timbaland, Nelly Furtado
• Producer: Timbaland, Danja, Nisan Stewart, Lester Mendez, Rick Nowels, Nelly Furtado
• Vocal producer: Jim Beanz
• Vocal assistance: Jim Beanz, Timbaland, The Horace Mann Middle School Choirs
• Engineers: Demacio Castellon, Vadim Chrislov, Ben Jost, Joao R. Názario, James Roach, Kobia Tetey, Joe Wohlmuth
• Assistant engineers: Jason Donkersgoed, Steve Genwick, Kieron Menzies, Dean Reid
• Mixing: Marcella Araica, Demacio Castellon, Bard Haehnal, Dave Pensado, Neal H. Pogue
• Mastering: Chris Gerhinger
• A&R: Thom Panunzio, D.J. Mormille
• A&R coordination: Evan Peters
• A&R administration: Jeanne Venton
• Art direction: JP Robinson, Gravillis Inc., Nevis
• Photography: Anthony Mandler
• Production manager: Cliff Feimann

See also

• Number-one albums of 2006 (U.S.)
• Number-one albums on the United World Chart