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"Powerless (Say What You Want)" is a pop song written by Nelly Furtado and Anne Dudley, Gerald Eaton, Trevor Horn, Malcolm McLaren and Brian West for Furtado's second studio album Folklore (2003). It was produced by Track & Field and received a positive reception from music critics. Banjo player Béla Fleck appears on the track.

It addresses how Furtado herself was discriminated against in that her record company wanted to hide her ancestry: "Paint my face in your magazines/Make it look whiter than it seems/Paint me over with your dreams/Shove away my ethnicity/". Furtado said about "Powerless": "I get to see a lot of DJ-oriented performance stuff, and I'm into the heaviness of breakbeats, how raw and powerful they are. Everything lately has become so synthesized, but just the standard sound of breakbeats is inspiring. "Powerless" uses breakbeats like that; it's a real groove, a real vibe. It just carries you away. There’s a banjo mixed with a breakbeat from Malcolm McLaren's "Buffalo Gals". So right away you're bobbing your head. The lyrics are initially in-your-face, like, "Okay, I know I'm going to be stereotyped in my life because that is the world we live in; that's society." But the song tries to find some sense of order in this complicated world."

The song was chosen as the album's lead single and released in December 2003. It was a big hit on the U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart, peaking at number five, but it failed to chart on the Hot 100. The "Powerless" music video won the 2004 Canadian MuchMusic Award for "Best Pop Video".

Charts

See also

• European Hit Radio Top 100 (2004)

• 2003 singles
• Nelly Furtado songs