Background and Writing
The lyrics of "Promiscuous" describe the two sides of the relationship that the song's protagonist deals with. It was one of the first songs Furtado wrote with labelmate Timothy "Attitude" Clayton. Furtado called their teamwork something she "had never done before" because she saw the writing process as "extremely freeing" because of his different approach and style. Clayton helped Furtado experiment with interpreting the "promiscuous girl" character and the two-sided relationship she is in. Furtado also described that in the process of writing lyrics "we were actually flirting, which is why the song is so playful" and that she and Clayton nicknamed the song 'The BlackBerry Song', because everything we say in the song you could text-message to somebody". Because of the preponderant musical influence of artists such as Talking Heads, Blondie, Madonna, The Police and Eurythmics, whom producers Timbaland and Danja listened to during the writing of the album, "Promiscuous" takes inspiration from pop music of the 1980s. The sexuality was based on the "strong women in control" of the 1990s, such as Queen Latifah, MC Lyte, Yo-Yo, Salt-n-Pepa and TLC.
The reference to basketball player Steve Nash in the song's lyrics led to speculation that he and Furtado were romantically involved, but both deny the link with Nash commenting, "I'm flattered that she put me in her song, but I'm completely in love with my wife and two little baby girls". Furtado decided to include him because she and Nash are both from Victoria, British Columbia, and due to frequent citations of basketballers in songs, she decided to "give him the props". In one of the verses Timbaland introduces himself as Thomas Crown. The Thomas Crown Affair is a film about wealthy businessman who plays a cat-and-mouse/flirting game with an insurance investigator. Timbaland only performed the song live on special occasions, such as Furtado's appearance on Saturday Night Live, and the 2006 MuchMusic Video Awards. Starting with Furtado's show at the 94th Grey Cup on November 19, 2006, and extending into the Get Loose Tour, Timbaland's part is filled in by Canadian rapper Saukrates.
Read more about this topic: Promiscuous (song)
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