Nelly Furtado on the Music That Terrified and Changed Her

Before her debut album, 2000’s Whoa, Nelly!, grabbed the world by its talons, Nelly Furtado spent months petitioning radio stations to play her songs, sweetening the deal with a free pizza pie. Most of the DJs she tried to persuade were confounded not only by the pizza but by Furtado’s music: a mix of trip-hop, pop, bossa nova, and fado. But those who put her soon-to-be breakout singles on the air — “I’m Like a Bird,” “Turn Out the Lights” ...