Loose (Nelly Furtado Album) - Controversy

Controversy

Considerable attention was generated by the more sexual image of Furtado presented in promotion and publicity for the album, and in particular the music videos for "Promiscuous" and "Maneater", in which she dances around with her midriff exposed. According to Maclean's magazine, some said that Furtado's progression was a natural transformation of a pop singer; others believed that she had "sold out" in an effort to garner record sales, particularly after her second album was a commercial failure in comparison to her first. Maclean's wrote that her makeover "seems a bit forced" and contrasted her with singers such as Madonna and Emily Haines of Metric: " seem to be completely in control, even somewhat intimidating in their sexuality: they've made a calculated decision for commercial and feminist reasons. In contrast, Furtado's new, overt sexuality comes off as unoriginal—overdone by thousands of pouty pop stars with a quarter of Furtado's natural talent ... the revamping feels as if it's been imposed rather than chosen by the unique, articulate singer we've seen in the past." Dose magazine wrote that Furtado's new "highly sexualized" image was manufactured, and noted the involvement in the album's development of Geffen's Jimmy Iovine, who helped to develop the Pussycat Dolls, a girl group known for their sexually suggestive dance routines. The writer also criticised Furtado's discussion of her buttocks and apparent rejection of feminism in a Blender magazine interview, writing "Girls, do you hear that churning? Those are the ideas of Gloria Steinem turning in their grave." A writer for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation said that cynics could attribute Furtado's commercial success with Loose to her "amped-up sex appeal". The writer added that, the failure of Janet Jackson's album Damita Jo (2004) indicated such a move was not infallible. That Furtado was "still demure compared to many of her competitors"—she avoided sporting lingerie or performing "Christina Aguilera-style gyrations or calisthenics" in the "Promiscuous" and "Maneater" videos. "Despite its dramatic arrival ... Furtado's new image doesn’t feel calculated", he said. " seems to be thinking less and feeling more, to the benefit of her music."

In early 2007, a video hosted on YouTube led to reports that the song "Do It", and the Timbaland-produced ringtone "Block Party" that inspired it, used—without authorization—the melody from Finnish demoscene musician Janne "Tempest" Suni's song "Acidjazzed Evening", winner of the Assembly 2000 oldskool music competition. Timbaland used the record of C64 adaptation of the song written by Glenn Rune Gallefoss (GRG). Timbaland admitted sampling the song, but said that he had no time to research its intellectual owner. Hannu Sormunen, a Finnish representative of Universal which represents Nelly Furtado in Finland, commented the controversy as follows in the January 15, 2007 issue of Iltalehti; "In case that the artist decides to pursue the matter further, it's on him to go to America and confront them with the local use of law. It will require a considerable amount of faith and, of course, money." On February 9, 2007, Timbaland commented on the issue in an MTV interview: "It makes me laugh. The part I don't understand, the dude is trying to act like I went to his house and took it from his computer. I don't know him from a can of paint. I'm 15 years deep. That's how you attack a king? You attack moi? Come on, man. You got to come correct. You the laughing stock. People are like, 'You can't be serious.'"

On June 12, 2009, Mikko Välimäki, who is one of the legal counsels of Kernel Records, the owner of the sound recording rights, reported that the case had been filed in Florida.

In January 2008, Turkish newspapers reported that Kalan Müzik, the record label that released Turkish folk singer Muhlis Akarsu's album Ya Dost Ya Dost, pressed charges against Furtado for the Loose track "Wait for You", which label officials said features the bağlama instrumental part of Akarsu's song "Allah Allah Desem Gelsem".