Nelly Furtado Stays 'Loose'

Nelly Furtado worked with a group of music industry heavyweights on her upcoming album "Loose." In-demand hip-hop producer Timbaland, Shakira's longtime collaborator Lester Mendez, Coldplay frontman Chris Martin and Colombian megastar Juanes all worked on the album. But Furtado said it's her 2 1/2-year-old daughter, Nevis, who deserves the most credit for the album.

"This album wouldn't have existed if I wasn't a mother," she said. "That's why it's called "Loose." (It) has this really youthful energy.

"During the recording process, I was living the life," she continued. "I had my cake and ate it too, because I was with my daughter. She's young, she's not in school yet so she was just with me every day in the morning and we'd go to the park and go to the beach in Miami and have fun and play. And then at nighttime I got to record music with the greatest producers in the world."

Furtado, 27, added that she's living her own childhood all over again by seeing the world through her daughter's eyes.

Being a single mom has also changed Furtado's view of the music business. "It really made me take my job way more seriously, it made me think about my work ethic, it made me think more about providing for (Nevis) and her future."

Things are already looking good for "Loose," which is scheduled for release on June 20. The album's first single, "Promiscuous (featuring Timbaland)" debuted at No. 64 on Billboard's Hot 100 earlier this month, making it the highest-debuting single in Furtado's career and ending her five-year absence from the chart.

Success isn't about to spoil Furtado, not if Nevis has anything to do with it. Furtado said that being a mom "separates work from home life and that's essential to keeping a level head in this business. It's easy to just float away into the cosmos if you don't have your 3-year-old throwing soup at you at the restaurant!"