What you need to know
Nelly Furtado has been away from the stage for a while.
In a statement shared to social media on Friday, Oct. 24, the “Maneater” singer, 46, said he is putting performing on hold “for the time being as I pursue other creative and personal endeavors that I deem appropriate for the next phase of my life.”
She posted a merry-go-round of two photos, starting with a photo of her as a young 20-year-old, about to perform in her “first show as a professional artist at Lilith Fair.”
The next slide was a video of her onstage in Berlin this summer, as the crowd chanted her name, “finally understanding what it meant to receive flowers.”
As she reflected on her first performance, Furtado recalled buying a pink dress at a store called Original on Toronto’s Queen West and a pair of sparkly platform shoes for this monumental moment.
“It meant so much and I felt like I was so realized as an artist,” she wrote.
“After 25 years, my music has reached a whole new generation of fans and I couldn’t be happier,” she said while celebrating the 25th anniversary of her first album, Wha, Nelly!.
The “Promiscuous Girl” singer said when the album debuted that her biggest wish at the time was “that someday some kid will dust off a Wha, Nelly! record in a record store and think it’s cool and inspiring.”
“So we never could have imagined that in 2025 there would be so many new ways to discover ‘old’ music,” Furtado said.
She went on to express her gratitude for “so many people rediscovering” her music, calling it “surreal and fun.”
The “Say It Right” singer added that seeing fans “up close” “made me really believe in magic.”
“I’ve really enjoyed my career. I always think of writing music as a hobby that I was lucky enough to make into a career, so I still love it. I will forever identify as a songwriter,” Furtado said.
The Grammy winner thanked “everyone who has been touched by my music and attended my shows” and “those who have worked so hard to make my pop dream a reality.”
Greg DeGuire/Variety, via Getty
“I also wish the new generation of artists many years of fruitful and passionate performances,” she wrote.
Furtado spoke exclusively to PEOPLE about his love for the younger generation in a September 2024 interview, saying that during a performance at a festival in Australia, “it blew my mind that Gen Z was singing every word.”
“I thought, ‘Wow, this is real. This isn’t just a fun app. This is my music reconnecting. This is a big deal,'” she said.
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Furtado released his first album in seven years, “7”, in September 2024. She recorded the album with her daughter Nevis Gafnia (22).
“I was given the opportunity to connect with teenagers in this way, and it just felt like the greatest gift in the world,” Furtado tells PEOPLE of the years-long process. “What a blessing.”
