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Say It Right
Nelly Furtado
Loose (2006)
I don’t think anybody saw Nelly Furtado’s left turn into hip-hop coming, but after the shock of seeing her rap alongside Timbaland subsided, it turned out she was pretty damn good at working in the genre. “Promiscuous” and “Maneater” were both great singles in their own right, but it was “Say It Right” that found the perfect balance of her introspective lyricism and Timbaland’s addictive mid-tempo beats. Furtado sounds like she has had some sort of sorrowful epiphany, tinged with only the smallest sliver of hope, giving the song a quietly epic feel.
Also check out: I normally am not that impressed by mash-ups, but there is a version of “Say it Right” that uses the music of Robert Miles’s “Children” that is definitely worth finding.