Why did Nelly Furtado decline Drake's invitation to join him on stage? Canadian singer wants to collaborate with rapper 

Nelly Furtado recently appeared on the Call Her Daddy podcast, where she discussed a past invitation from Drake to join him on stage during one of his performances in Toronto.

The singer-songwriter, who shares her Canadian roots with the One Dance rapper, cited timing as the reason for declining Drake's invitation. Furtado said:

"He asked me at 11 p.m. to show up at 1 a.m... I love him to death, but I was like, ‘I’m not showing up without glam.’ Because, of course, he’s so famous, it will be everywhere."

The 46-year-old continued:

"I couldn’t make it that time, but anyways, I love him a lot. He’s a great guy. He really put Toronto on the map in a different kind of way and Canada in general."

Furtado didn't reveal which particular Drake show she had been invited to on the podcast.

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Nelly Furtado has been vocal about collaborating with Drake

Elsewhere in the podcast, Nelly Furtado was asked to name her dream collaborator, to which she responded with Drake's name, adding:

“I still think it would be cool to have a song with Drake. I think people would love that. Because we’re both Canadian. Toronto lore, you know? I think it would be really good."

The Turn off The Light singer then revealed that she had revisited footage from the event she couldn't perform in. During that performance, Drake appeared on stage in a striking yellow tracksuit. Sharing her musings about what she could have worn had she joined the Hotline Bling rapper, Furtado said:

"I’m like, ‘What would I have worn? Pink?’ Because then it would have been all videos of all yellow and you know, what color? That’s what performers do, you always think about what things pop. Especially in pop music."

While Furtado might've missed an opportunity to perform next to the God's Plan rapper, the artists have shared the stage in the past. In 2022, Drake invited her to perform at his OVO All-Canadian North Stars concert.

In an August 2022 appearance on the Zach Sany Show, she spoke about her surprise appearance at Drizzy's Toronto show, saying:

"I was like, ‘Drake, why don’t I do, like, one of your songs? I got bars, you know?’. And then he's like, ‘Mmm, no, we don't have enough time to rehearse that. That's not going to go off right'."

According to Nelly, it was the Worst Behavior rapper who recommended she go with her 2000 hit track, I'm Like a Bird, which she was confused about since it might appear out of context in the show.

With Drizzy's reassurance, she performed the track at the OVO show, which turned out to be a massive success, garnering over 1 million views on YouTube alone. Reflecting on her experience of performing after being away from the limelight for over five years, Furtado said:

"That was a good moment for me because I had done a lot of work on myself internally, I would say, up until the years - those five years not being on stage. When I got out there, what hit me was, ‘Oh my God, I'm a totally different woman now,’ you know? I can receive this, I can be here, I can be present in a different way. I have so much more to offer at this job like, ‘Wow, I guess I was pretty good at this at one point,’ you know what I mean?"

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Following her performance at OVO, Nelly Furtado released her seventh studio album, 7, which found success in five European countries.