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"Powerless (Say What You Want)" is a pop song written by Canadian singer-songwriters Nelly Furtado and Anne Dudley, Gerald Eaton, Trevor Horn, Malcolm McLaren and Brian West for Furtados's second studio album Folklore (2003).
Song Information/Chart Performance
The track was produced by Track & Field and received a positive reception from music critics. It addresses how Nelly 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/.
Released in December 2003, the song was chosen as the album's lead single. The single was a big hit on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play charts, peaking at #5 but failed to chart on the Billboard Hot 100.
Banjo virtuoso Bela Fleck also appears on the track.
Music Video
Powerless won the Canadian MuchMusic Award for 2004 Best Pop Video.
The video revolves around a classic psychological metaphor: Nelly trapped inside a box from which she seeks to escape. Inside, the box is plastered with posters that act as doors or windows for the artist’s imagination. Her situation is a metaphor for being both defined and confined by the illusory commercial reality of her celebrity and beauty.
The 25 posters for the Powerless video convey much of the song’s message through the free spirited visual sojourns. The posters are animated with emotion and imagination, capturing Nelly’s youthful enthusiasm and colorful personality as she sings a song that affirms the diversity and individualism inside everyone ; Source for this info is http://www.aarongoffman.com/nelly/ and http://www.aarongoffman.com/nelly/nellysynopsis.html .
Charts
| Year | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|
| 2004 | Argentina | 1 |
| 2004 | Australia | 37 |
| 2004 | Austria | 7 |
| 2004 | Chile | 8 |
| 2004 | Japan | 12 |
| 2004 | Germany | 8 |
| 2004 | Mexico | 18 |
| 2004 | Netherlands | 6 |
| 2004 | New Zealand | 16 |
| 2004 | Philippines | 18 |
| 2004 | Portugal | 8 |
| 2004 | Sweden | 37 |
| 2004 | Switzerland | 16 |
| 2004 | U.K. | 13 |
| 2004 | U.S. Hot Dance Music/Club Play | 5 |
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