Nelly Furtado recently revealed how airbrushing was used to edit her natural skin tone and body shape in magazines during the early stage of her career. Furtado, who rose to fame in the 2000s with hit songs like “Maneater” and “I’m Like a Bird,” reflected on her experience in the music industry in a recent interview with PEOPLE. She recalled how airbrushing was one of the most vivid things she remembers from that time.
Nelly Furtado on airbrushing: ‘They’d kind of lighten my skin a lot’
Talking to PEOPLE, Nelly Furtado opened up about how her pictures were airbrushed when she was starting in the industry. She revealed, “I have olive skin, and they’d kind of lighten my skin a lot in photos.” She further said how magazines edited the natural shape of her body. The 45-year-old singer discussed that they “kind of take my hips down all the time — they would always cut off in editorials.” Furtado added that by the time she released her second album, she was “kind of angry about it.”
Despite her experiences, the singer believed she was “lucky and blessed” to have “had a good team” that felt like “family” and always looked out for her. “My team around me felt so solid and really looking out for my best interests,” she affirmed. Furtado also talked about how she had “a very matriarchal family,” which helped her to develop a solid grounding and be more assertive while voicing her professional opinions.
She said, “So I was given a really solid kind of sense of assertiveness, I’m going to call it. So that was a good tool for me to navigate the music industry. And I was given really solid advice from a young age, luckily, from very paternal sort of people around me. So I was lucky, I was one of the lucky ones.”
On September 20, the singer-songwriter released her latest album, “7,” after seven years. Describing the album as “a whole new me, who’s stronger, braver, more confident,” Nelly Furtado is now looking forward to returning to her craft. Notably, her eldest daughter, Nevis Gahunia, also worked on “7” alongside her mother.
