Calgary’s National Music Centre opening feature exhibit celebrating Nelly Furtado

Meghan MacKrous, collections and exhibitions specialist at Calgary's National Music Centre, looks at her finished Nelly Furtado exhibit in the Cloud Lounge.

Calgary’s National Music Centre (NMC) is celebrating 2026 Canadian Music Hall of Fame inductee Nelly Furtado with a new exhibit in the Cloud Lounge at Studio Bell.

Furtado has more than 35 million albums sold worldwide, along with multiple Juno, Grammy, and Latin Grammy Awards to her name. The items on display are on loan from her personal collection, made up of articles and outfits she’s saved throughout her career.

“There are some very personal and precious things, like songwriting notes from when she was a teenager. Expressing those things at a tender age is quite a personal experience, but she’s let us open those up and share those,” said Claire Neily, senior manager of collections and exhibitions.

“We’ve worked with Nelly’s family and management team in Toronto pulling things from all kinds of places to put this together, it’s really surprising and really generous of them to go deep into their archives, including family closets and giving us access to those things.”

‘Excited to see it come together’

The new exhibit is opening four days before the 55th annual Juno Awards, where Canadian artists will gather in Hamilton to witness Furtado joining the ranks of the country’s most celebrated music icons with her induction into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame.

“(Furtado’s) really excited. We worked with her team for a number of months thinking about what could be put into the exhibit, so I think they’ll be excited to see it come together,” Neily said.

“We’re tracing Nelly’s career from her earliest days in music as a young performer in Portuguese folk dress at the Victoria Folk Festival, right up until some of her most recent performances on big stages like Coachella and Lollapalooza and the Tiny Desk concert.”

‘Deep dive’ into Furtado’s music

The exhibit explores Furtado’s evolution throughout her career that’s touched music lovers around the world. Visitors to NMC will be treated to archival photos and videos along with several iconic stage outfits worn throughout career during live performances, in music videos and at award ceremonies.

Furtado has also shared original lyric sheets and notebooks that offer an intimate look at the artist’s songwriting process.

“I think with all of these exhibits, you’re doing a deep dive into their music,” Neily said.

“Discovering their process and songs that maybe you didn’t hear before and you realize there’s so much amongst the hits to learn about and appreciate.”

NMC’s entire fifth floor is dedicated to past and present Canadian Music Hall of Fame inductees. The Furtado exhibit is open March 25 to February 2027. Learn more about it here.