Nelly Furtado Packs Oakland's Paramount
06.21.07

While critics from Minneapolis to Hollywood are talking about Nelly's stage efforts as some dysfunctional diva gone silly, anybody who was at the show in Oakland knows that Nelly is still about her music and her fans still love her.  Frankly, it's usually the critics that are dysfunctional and look silly, but that's another story.

Nelly continues to capture the most colorful, multi-ethnic audience of any performer on tour and has the ability to seriously connect with her fans on stage.  She paid tribute to Gnarls Barkley performing, "Crazy."  The audience went nuts helping out thru the chorus.

So what if  her latest album, "Loose," is clubby?  After all, she teamed up with two of the biggest names in club music:  Justin Timberlake and Timbaland.  What's more, Loose, peaked at #1 on Billboard.  Obviously, somebody is buying her album.

Nelly's fans didn't stay seated for much of her show.  She performed most of her big hits with a twist..  that live-vibe style that great performers do at their shows to really own them and give the audience something special to remember as opposed to the same exact tracks that were polished in the studio.

In closing, Nelly doesn't need to try to be sexy, her songs are sexy all by themselves without video, without hype, without photo ops.  Her voice is hers, and she delivers her music only like she can - from the heart.