Powerless (Say What You Want)

Album: Folklore (2003)
Charted: 13
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Songfacts®:

  • Furtado is of Portuguese ancestry, and in this song she calls out the practice of publicists doctoring photos to make ethnic talent appear more white. Furtado describes the song as about trying to find order in a complicated world.
  • This uses a popular sample from "Buffalo Gals" by Malcolm McLaren. The sample is mixed with a banjo played by Bela Fleck. >>
    Suggestion credit:
    Donovan Berry - El Dorado, AR, for above 2
  • "Powerless" is part of Nelly Furtado's second album, Folklore, released in 2003. Her first album, Whoa, Nelly!, released in 2000, made her a pop star pretty quickly with two big hits: "I'm Like A Bird" and "Turn Off The Light." This was when she realized her publicity materials were whitening her.

    "I didn't understand why people wanted to use Photoshop on my pictures after my first album, so I wrote the song 'Powerless' because I felt disenfranchised and I felt the weight of the world," she told The Talks.

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