It’s been a wild ride, says Nelly Furtado. But finally, at age 37, she feels she has her moorings. “I’ve done a lot of soul searching,” offers the Portuguese-Canadian chart-topper, who helped define the sound of modern R&B with 2006’s Timbaland-produced Loose album and attendant hit singles ‘Maneater’ and ‘Promiscuous’.

“I don’t want be an entertainer in my private life,” she says. “I shouldn’t have to dance for you in order for you to love me. It’s a habit entertainers often have – of always wanting to please, of giving and giving. And never giving to themselves. That’s why so many crash and burn in public.”

She chronicles this emotional journey on sixth studio long-player, The Ride. It’s a mature and ruminative work – a piece of art rather than something that is going to set the charts alight.