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Nelly Furtado
Wednesday night | Commodore Ballroom
VANCOUVER - Whoa, what happened Nelly?
That was the question that hung in the air at the Commodore Ballroom Wednesday evening, when Victoria-bred songstress Nelly Furtado made her long-awaited return to Vancouver, five years after her last trek through the city.
Hard to believe that Furtado would be playing to a handful of fans (were there even 500 in attendance?) compared to the crowds she sang for in 2007, the year she swept the Juno Awards ceremony she was hosting in Saskatoon in the spring thanks to her Timbaland-produced album Loose, on the cusp of performing at Wembley stadium for the Concert for Diana that July.
What should have been a triumphant comeback at the Orpheum Theatre, where Wednesday’s concert was originally scheduled, turned into bit of a bummer.
Not that Furtado is any less of a singer these days, and she showed she is as skilled as ever Wednesday evening, but her latest album The Spirit Indestructible isn’t nearly a chart-buster like Loose or breakout album Whoa, Nelly!, the album that gave us I'm Like A Bird. (The Spirit Indestructible even failed to break the Top Ten in Canada when it was released in September last year.)
What’s more, many singers have come to claim her spot in the intervening five years since she ruled the scene, and after being moved from the Orpheum, the show became a 19-plus affair, which could have shown there is a disconnect between the 34-year-old and younger music fans.
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And although The Spirit Indestructible shows Furtado digging back to her roots and collaborating with a host of top-notch producers including Timbaland, Tiesto and The Neptunes, the result is a hit-and-miss mish-mash of an album that never really takes off.
The same could be said of Furtado’s performance at the Commodore: It was an uphill battle.
In spite of a room far from bursting with electricity, Furtado opened on an uplifting, hopeful note with the banging title track from her latest album.
Stylish in her glittering gold sequined top and black fedora, she gave her seasoned pipes a good workout.
Backed by a six-piece including two keyboard players, guitar, a live drummer and a DJ as well as a backup vocalist, Furtado quickly followed with the Euro-flavoured Waiting For The Night.
Her stage banter remains, even after all these years, almost superfluous, Furtado handing out snoozers like, “Thank you for coming to the show tonight” with as little energy as possible.
One would have thought that, on home turf at least, Furtado would have tried to give fans a little more than flat niceties.
Speaking of flat, though, you couldn’t help but cringe when Furtado brought out opener Dylan Murray to duet with her on Be OK. Try as he might, Murray could barely hit the notes, both singers getting in each other’s way.
But when Furtado found her groove - Powerless, an electric Turn Off The Light and classic I'm Like A Bird, which came early on in the set and ended up getting awkwardly mashed into Steve Miller’s Fly Like An Eagle - it was fun enough.
However, looking around a room filled with aging fans and a half-empty dance floor, you couldn’t help but wonder if Furtado’s better years as a headlining performer and a multi-platinum seller were already behind her.
“Why do all things come to an end?” she sang on All Good Things. Is it too early to ask?
Considering what followed was a reading of “bucket list” requests fans were asked to submit before the show that were handed to Furtado by someone dressed as the grim reaper, maybe not.
The rest of the concert was laborious, Furtado missing her cue on High Life and forcing a re-start. The song also featured a “La la la la” sing-along that definitely did not need cardboard cue cards. Tacky.
Capping things off: A sub-par disco version of hit single Promiscuous, a contrived cover of Madonna’s Like A Prayer, and redemption in the form of a floor-stomping Maneater.
It may be a good thing that Furtado is already looking beyond her own singing career, as her openers reflected.
Jessica Tyler is an 18-year-old upstart famous for her role as Jenna Middleton on Degrassi: The Next Generation, while singer-songwriter Murray is releasing his debut album Inspiration via Furtado’s Nelstar Records, an indie label she founded in 2009.
Which isn’t to say Furtado’s future lies solely on the sidelines or behind the scenes, but if she is going to make it back up that hill she once was the queen of, she’s going to need a game-changing plan.
CLICK HERE TO VIEW MORE PHOTOS FROM THE NELLY FURTADO CONCERT IN VANCOUVER
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