Billboard

It’s been seven years since Nelly Furtado released a new album, and she’s marking her comeback with ‘7.’ The renowned singer, known for delivering hit after hit, opens up about her experiences recording ‘7,’ including having her daughter watch the process. She also discusses the resurgence of her classic hits on TikTok, Kamala Harris using “Maneater,” seeing Taylor Swift at The Eras Tour, her upcoming tour, and more!

Lyndsey Havens:

Hey, what’s up? I’m Lindsey Havens for Billboard News, and we are here with the icon, the legend, Nelly Furtado. Thank you so much for coming in. 

Nelly Furtado:

Hi! Thanks for having me. 

We are such big fans of yours, and congratulations. You have an incredible new album, ‘7.’ It has been a minute since your last album. I believe it was 2017, so tell me about how you knew that this was the time to come back and why you wanted to release an album now. 

It just felt like the right time. I had taken some time to just live and go through a lot of personal things, and so I had a lot to write about A. And then B, I felt really called back to the industry. I started hearing a lot of my music on, you know, social media, especially TikTok, a lot of different DJs started remixing a lot of my old materials. I did really feel authentically that it was time to make some new music and some new vocals for everyone to remix. The music on this album is really informed by like me going out playing shows, reconnecting with audiences, brand new audiences as well, kind of really reflecting that in the sound of the album. Just kind of, I feel like I gained, like, a solid understanding of why people like my music and particular music that they love, and why, and I kind of really did keep that top of mind when I was recording this new album. 

Makes sense that you said you’re kind of going out and having fun and living life because I get that in the production and the beats of this music, but then the songwriting goes so deep into everything else that you were experiencing.

Keep watching for more!

Lil Tecca is entering his Plan A era on Sept. 20, and to help launch it, he dropped “Taste” and “Bad Time.” The rapper talks to Billboard‘s Mike Saponara about how he gathered inspiration for his album, how he handled reaching success at a young age, linking with Don Toliver and Juice WRLD, and listening to his fans when they speak about his music. Keep watching to see all the gems Lil Tecca drops and to see him play a game!

What’s going on, guys? This is Beat by Beat. I’m Mike Saponara here with Billboard. We have the great Lil Tecca. Tecc, talk to the people — how are we feeling? 

Feeling good. I’m about to drop Plan A with my guy, Mike.

Hey, yeah, we’re looking forward to that. Take us back. When did that world start to take form for you?

I honestly got the name Plan A when I was about to finish Tec, my last album. 

OK. 

I didn’t really know what I wanted to call the next one. So when it was kind of time to decide the name for this album, I had a couple mines, couple names in my head, but I just remembered, like I was thinking about Plan A.

Plan A. There’s no Plan B.

Going Plan A.

Word. Where do you do most of your recording, I guess. How was the creative process for that? 

For this album, we recorded most of it in Miami. I was just in the studio everyday with, like, money and ties and all of them. There was a couple songs that I did in New York and also in my crib, too. 

Did you produce a lot of this album?

I didn’t produce a lot of it, but definitely my beat selection is what drives a lot of the production, 

Right, right.

Keep watching for more!

With the announcement of Charli XCX’s Brat remix album, Troye Sivan leads the way with his remix with her on “Talk Talk.” Watch what he had to say about making the remixed single, out now! 

Stay tuned for the full Troye Sivan interview, coming soon!

Troye Sivan: 
We’ve come out with something that I really, really love, like, it slaps I think. 

Why was “Talk Talk” the song that you guys felt like was right for your remix? 

She did the whole remix album, so there’s, like, a remix for every song, and she chose me for “Talk talk.” When she was first working on Brat, she sent me “Talk Talk” and I loved it, obviously. And it was really cool, though, because what she’s done with this remix album is, like, it can be … Some of the remixes are kind of a more maybe traditional feature, where the person has come on and just, you know, is on the second verse, kind of like doing the same melody, but maybe changing some lyrics, but, you know, kind of like that vibe.

What she said as well, though, was that she wanted some of the songs to … She’s just like, “I don’t care if you use one word from the original, it can be a completely new song. But use, use ‘Talk Talk’ as, like, you know, a seed for a song.” Essentially, we sampled “Talk Talk” and created an entirely new pop song out of it. Because I said to her, “If it’s a remix, is this like a, like a six-minute long, like, club song? Or is this like a pop song?” And she was like, “No, it’s a pop song.” I’m like, “OK, cool.”

I had so much fun, kind of, like, taking the scissors to the song that I really, really love, and getting to, kind of, like, chop it and change it and whatever. And we brought in kind of, like, the rush team, and worked on it, and then sent it back to Charli, and Charli did her thing, sent it back to me. It was just kind of like this really fun collaborative process, and we’ve come out with something that I really, really love, it, like, slaps I think, yeah.