Nelly Furtado enchanted Gilberto Madail with the proposal of the anthem for the Euro 2004. The president of the Portuguese Federation of football and the Euro Society 2003 S.A. heard the song this past week that the luso-Canadian songstress composed especially for the Portuguese match of the coming year and liked it so much that they have no doubt in how it will be received as it enters the ear with ease and is easy to sing along to.
‘Força’ is the sixth of 12 songs on Nelly Furtado’s upcoming album, whose commercial launch takes place 25th of November in the United States and Canada. The album, entitled ‚ “Folklore”, was born from the intense experience of her summer holiday in the Azores in 2002, the native land of her parents and grandparents. And the song “Força”, as she explains, “resulted from the experience of what I received from the Portuguese people when I returned to Portugal”.
Nelly accounts that “força” translates to “keep going” or “kick ass”, “is associated to sport, especially football”, and she explains how she wrote the music and lyrics: “I combined a feminine twist to how I view our favourite sport”. And when conjoined with nationality, it becomes very intense! Thus,”Força” is a happy song, an explosion of energy, with the sounds of banjo from Bela Fleck.
On second review, the Euro-2004 organisation asked Nelly to write one version of the lyrics in Portuguese although the song should be presented in the two languages, both English and Portuguese. For the final show, singer Dulce Pontes was invited rock the international audience with the song “Cancao do Mar”, which marked the Portuguese candidacy of the organisation of Euro 2004.
Source translated by Paula Ribeiro for SOTR, 18th Oct, 2003
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