Nelly Furtado's left boob is peeking out of her gaping black blouse, but she's too busy discussing her love for Ani DiFranco to realize. She's squirming in the seat of an aqua-and-burnt-orange striped booth in a set for a 1970s-themed diner inside New York's YouTube Studio, where famous vloggers shoot their videos. I'm trying not to stare as she twiddles her Longhorn ring and plunges her hands in and out of the pockets of her inside-out shearling coat."Look!" Furtado demands. She shows me the inside of her ochre-colored coat, flashing a sheer black bra in the process. "You can wear it two ways! It's literally reversible." She's wholly amused despite her obliviousness, opening and closing her jacket again and again over her breast. She's laughing. I'm laughing. Her left boob is still out. She spells out the clothing brand for me: "D-R-O-M-E. Drome. That's so rad," she says, slumping back into the booth and finally noticing that her left boob is half-exposed. She doesn't seem phased. Why would she be? This is the woman who gyrated in music videos, wearing everything from low-rise jeans and a cropped sheer blouse in "Promiscuous" to a tiny white wife beater in "Maneater."Except the Furtado seated across from me is not the same mid-2000s Furtado whose abs were envied by teenage girls and whose music was the soundtrack for teens making out in cars. Between her short jet-black hair and fake eyelashes, Furtado still drips sex appeal, but she also exudes a maturity and sensibility she hadn't yet acquired while recording 2000's Whoa, Nelly! or 2006's hit album Loose. This month, she's putting her emotional development on full display with The Ride, her sixth studio album, which she considers her first album in years that she recorded as an artist instead of as "someone wearing a business hat."Continue reading on Broadly
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