Nelly Furtado recalls what made her 'angry' and inspired 'Powerless'

Nelly Furtado is taking a trip down an airbrushed memory lane.

Nelly made it big in 2000 with songs like I’m Like a Bird and Turn Off The Light. However, in that era, the singer’s photos used to be heavily airbrushed.

She told People that her photos were subjected to “a lot of airbrushing” in that era.

“I have olive skin, and they’d kind of lighten my skin a lot in photos,” she shared, “and kind of take my hips down all the time — they would always cut off in editorials.”

In her song Powerless, the singer hit back at all the airbrushing.

“By my second album, I guess I was kind of angry about it,” she confessed.

The Say It Right hitmaker also shared how she learned to stand her ground in the industry.

She said: “I was pretty feisty, so I really knew what I wanted. For instance, let’s say a photo shoot or something, I’d always bring my own little carry-on with my own little raver pants and tank tops and glitter, just in case I didn’t like what the stylist brought to the shoot, just to make sure I was comfortable, and just blazing my own trail I guess, in my own way.”

“You have to, I think. You have to kind of have that sense of self. I think it’s important, to navigate the industry. You have to kind of listen to the tiny voice inside. That’s really important,” Nelly Furtado reflected.