Songfacts®:

• The 1982 Hall & Oates song "Maneater" is about an irresistible woman with very expensive taste who uses men to do her bidding. They warn their fellow men about her: "Watch out boy she'll chew you up."
  
  In this song, Nelly Furtado plays the Maneater, getting guys to fall in love with her so she can spend all their money. It's a playful throwback, with musical nods to the '80s style heard in the Hall & Oates song.
• If it's a banger from 2006, there's a good chance it was a Timbaland production. That's the case here: Timbaland produced the song with his associate Nate "Danja" Hills. They're credited as writers along with Furtado and Jim Beanz.
  
  The Furtado-Timbaland combination was a good one: He produced most of her third album, Loose, which kicked out a #1 single in "Promiscuous." "Maneater" was the next single, and although it stalled at #16 in the US, it held up as one of her most popular songs, a must-sing in concerts and huge in the era of streaming. The next single from the album was "Say It Right," which also went to #1.
  
  Timbaland also supplied beats to some Justin Timberlake songs that were huge at this time, including "What Goes Around... Comes Around," "My Love," and "SexyBack."
• The recording of this song was delayed when a speaker caught fire in the studio control room. The incident scared Furtado, who recalled to TeenMusic.com: "My first night at the studio in Miami, we all jammed. [Co-writer] Nate Hill had this ferocious beat up, and there was this crazy, tribal voodoo energy in the room. I've never felt anything like it - it was so intense. The volume was turned up to 11, and all of a sudden I started to smell smoke. I looked at the speaker and flames were shooting out of it. We were so scared of the track that we put it away and didn't touch it for two weeks."
• The music video was directed by Anthony Mandler, who was also behind the lens for Rihanna's "Disturbia" and Fergie's "Big Girls Don't Cry." It starts with a scene where Furtado's dog gets loose. She follows it down a dark alley where she ends up surrounded by a scary looking crew who instead of menacing her, dance with her.
  
  Unlike many pop stars of the time, Furtado wasn't trained in dance, but she does bust out some moves in this video.
• Nelly Furtado earned an invite to a tribute concert at Wembley Stadium on July 1, 2007 that was broadcast around the world. She played "Maneater" in her set along with "Say It Right" and "I'm Like A Bird." Elton John, Tom Jones and Duran Duran were also on the bill.