say it right

mix by mark roberts / ultimix

"Say It Right" is a pop-R&B song written by Canadian singer Nelly Furtado, Timothy "Timbaland" Mosley and Nate "Danja" Hills for Furtado's third album Loose (2006). It was co-produced by Timbaland and Danja and released as the album's third single in North America and Australia, with its U.S. radio release on October 31, 2006 (see 2006 in music).[1] In February 2007 it became Furtado's second number-one single in the United States. The song served as the album's fourth single in Europe and Asia; it was released in the United Kingdom in March 2007 as a download-only single. The song will serve as the album's fifth single in Latin America.

background...

The process of creating the song began in the recording studio one morning at around 4:00am, when Timbaland recommended that Furtado go home because she was tired. Furtado, who had heard that the band U2, one of her favorite artists,[citation needed] wrote many of their songs in the studio control room, said "Really? I'll show you", put on her hoodie and began to "jam".[2] Nate Hills and Timbaland soon joined her, writing and producing as they went, and according to Furtado this process intensified as she sang. The team used four microphones in the live room and moved them around during recording, about which Furtado said "...when you listen to it — there's a lot of dimension. It kind of sounds like [Timbaland]'s in another country".[2] Afterwards they picked the best vocals and "perfected" them, before inserting "reverbs and weird alien sounds" onto them. "[W]e experimented a lot with depth and different sounds", Furtado said of the making of the song. "[It] affected my vocals a whole lot."[2]

Furtado has cited the "spooky, keyboard-driven pop sound" of the band Eurythmics, particularly their song "Here Comes the Rain Again" (1983), as an influence on "Say It Right" and other tracks on Loose. "I'm not 100 percent sure what ["Here Comes the Rain Again" is] about, but it always takes me away to another place, and I love it", she said.[3] She said that she does not really know what "Say It Right" is about, "but it captures the feeling I had when I wrote it, and it taps into this other sphere."[3] The song is written in F minor.

Billboard called the song "a Pussycat Dolls-inspired contempo jam, high on hooks and of-the-moment production. Well done, if in the most generic sense."[4]

music video...

The music video for "Say It Right" was directed by British duo Rankin & Chris and filmed at various locations in Los Angeles, California in late October 2006,[5] shot back-to-back with the video for "All Good Things (Come to an End)" (the album's third single in Europe).[6] The video debuted on MTV's Total Request Live in the U.S. on November 6 and on Canada's MuchMusic in the week ending November 16. It reached number nine on the Total Request Live top ten video countdown on November 8, its first day on the countdown;[7] it returned to the countdown on December 14[8] and peaked at number one twice. The video reached number one on the MuchMusic series Countdown for the week ending February 16.[9] The "Say It Right" video became Furtado's first retired video on TRL (see List of Total Request Live retired videos), after it spent forty days on the countdown.

The clip starts with a helicopter landing on top of a black helipad with Furtado's name on it in Downtown Los Angeles, and Furtado getting out. The short black dress she is wearing was designed specifically for her by Australian designer Alex Perry.[10] She is shown on the roof of the building throughout the video, with the Los Angeles skyline in the background. The video features mostly face shots of her and Timbaland intercut with shots of dancers. Furtado described the clip as "a throwback to the '80s" because the shots of her and Timbaland reminded her much of those of Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart in videos for Eurythmics' singles, and "the strange relationship [they] had, where ... you get this intense vibe from it. And Tim and me, we're partners, we vibe on a serious creative level, so the video captures that energy."[6] The video ends with Furtado climbing back into the helicopter, which flies off.

This text is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Say It Right".

say it right

loose

whoa, nelly!

folklore