Powerless (Say What You Want)

Portugese is ethnic, Nitts, ya gronk! Even if she was born in Canada. Have you been to Canada? It claims to be multicultural but it's so evidently white-washed and conformist, and that's North America for you..

Look INSIDE the box, yeh mate, I lived in Canada for a while, so yeh I do know. I'm a Spanish-Filo ethnic born and raised in Australia. But hey, if you think people use their ethnicity as a novelty, well, we do, haha! Whatever. Anyway the point I was tryin' to make was the silent pressure she feels from lack of empathy from white-washed North American media, if you're white and you're first language is English, you really won't understand. There's a whole history to it and EVERYDAY LIFE you have to experience. Yeah Trillium, it does have a good beat, and Nelly has this mad thing on melody.

OK, obviously Nelly has touched on a touchy subject in quite a cool song. I mean, just look at our responses here and how inflamed they are, and look what she did with this song.

This song really is about Nelly Furtado and celebrity in general. She is from Vancouver, and Portugeuse are a major ethnic group there. They do tend to live in many of the same neighborhoods and they often play much of their own music. Nelly's music is influenced by their type of music among others, including classic dance pop.

She does identify with her ethnic group, but many people who don't know better only see her as a white pop star. She is talking about the homogenization of fame in this song - how many people end up losing their identity once they become famous, and this song expresses her desire to fight it. Ever notice how many female stars are small build, skinny, light skin with long hair? She's saying that just because she might look nice and white doesn't mean she's just another celebrity and does not want to be manipulated to be one. Female pop stars do face strong pressures like this I'm sure. I think this is a very cool song.

Well, did anyone see that magazine cover where they had digitally altered tohe photo to make her whiter and her skirt shorter? she wrote this after that. I think it's a very powerful message, I like how she's so bold.

her parents were born and raised in portugal and immigrated to canada, where she was born... so she is ethnic nitts

love the song =)

Nitts: you're an idiot. but since you're only five years old I'll forgive you.

I think she might be talking about someone else. especially when she says, "I saw her face outside today". And it's about N.F. a little bit, too.

How is european ethnic? Last time I was in Cascais it looked pretty white-washed to me. A few black people cleaning the restaurant, that was all I saw in 3 weeks of working there.
I guarantee cities like New York and Los Angeles have people born in more different countries than just about anywhere on Earth, and certainly more than the homogenous Western Europe!!

Well, of course, she's talking about things in general. Not just HER. sigh Also, Canada IS multi-cultural, people just don't realize it. People need to look INSIDE the box sometimes. I should know, I live in Canada myself, and am half-Scottish (yes, my dad is a Scottish immagrant) thank you very much.

Either way, I love this song! I don't really care what it means. It has a great beat.

Mezz, you've got to be kidding me. The spanish were the original european imperialists enslaving the indigenous people across the world.
Now you're claiming to be "ethnic"? What's next, Danish people claiming minority status?