Nelly Furtado has revealed that she will be taking a break from performing her songs for the “foreseeable future.”
She shared the update about her career through an Instagram post on Friday, October 24, and looked back on her 25-year career.
“25 years ago on this day, my first album Whoa, Nelly! came out,” Furtado, 46, mentioned in the long caption.
With old photos from the last two decades, Furtado reminisced about when her career was just starting.
“25 years later, my music has found a brand new set of fans and I’m very happy about that,” she said. “Back in 2000, I remember hoping that one day a kid would find the Whoa, Nelly ! vinyl in a record store, dust it off and think it was cool or inspiring, so I never could have guessed that in 2025 there would be so many new ways to find “old” music!”
Furtado talked about how pleased she was that so many people were listening to her music throughout the years before sharing her plans to take a break from performing.
“The fact that so many people are rediscovering my music has been amazing and brought me so much joy. It’s been really fun taking advantage of this chance, getting back on stages and seeing firsthand how good music can really last. It’s made me really believe in magic,” she said.
Furtado went on, “Besides all of this, I’ve come to the conclusion that I should step away from performing for the foreseeable future so I can focus on other creative and personal pursuits that I think would be a better fit for this next chapter of my life. I’ve really enjoyed my career, and I still love writing music because I’ve always seen it as a hobby that I was lucky enough to turn into a career. I’ll always consider myself a songwriter.”
Nelly Furtado. (Photo by Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images for SiriusXM)
The “Maneater” singer finished the post by expressing her gratitude to her fans, her collaborators, and everyone else who helped her achieve her “pop dreams.”
“I’m grateful for all the fun, community and amazement over the years,” she wrote. “I’m extremely grateful to anyone who has ever listened and connected with my music and gone to any of my shows. I love you and your open hearts.
Earlier in the year, Furtado talked about how the demands of her career affected how she was expected to look.
The “Say it Right” singer responded to those who made comments about her body by openly discussing self-love in an empowering Instagram post.
“This year, I became more aware of the aesthetic pressure of my work, and at the same time, I felt new levels of self-love and real confidence from the inside,” she wrote in the post’s caption. “For those who care, I have never had any surgeries or enhancements to my face or body, except for veneers on my top teeth, which I got recently.”
In the post, Furtado also denied ever getting “face or lip injections or fillers.”
“My New Year’s message for 2025 is to freely express yourself, celebrate your individuality, and know that it’s completely fine to be happy with what you see in the mirror, and it’s also fine to want something different,” she said. “We’re all just cute little humans bouncing around the earth looking for hugs.”
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