"Try" is a song by Canadian singer-songwriter Nelly Furtado, taken from her second studio album, Folklore. The song, written by Furtado herself, and Brian West, was released as the second single from the album in February 2004. The song was moderately successful in several European countries, including Italy, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom, where it reached the top 20. It did not chart on the US BillboardHot 100, but it did peak at number 29 on the Adult Top 40 chart. Lyrically, Furtado said the song "is about the reality of love. My energy used to just go everywhere, but now I'm more grounded because I've found true love. The idea here is that, yeah, sometimes life sucks. But life is only so long, and somebody can come along who makes you want to be a better person. You just have to roll with the punches. So "Try" is not a happy-go-lucky song. It has a strange arrangement because the chorus happens only twice, and the end is improvisational. It's like one of those epic power ballads." The Los Angeles Times said of "Try", "Her unfettered enthusiasm wins out as she sings of passion for life".
Commercial release
Although the single was a success in some European countries, it did not chart in the United States. "Try" was the last single released from Folklore in the US; the subsequent singles were released only in Canada, Europe and Latin America. Two versions of the song exist; the original with the chorus only occurring twice, and a radio edit version in which the improv is taken out at the end and an extra chorus is added. A Spanish version, "Dar", was released in 2007 in the album of Loose only available in Latin America.
Music video
The music video was directed by Sophie Muller. The music video features Nelly and a male actor in traditional Portuguese dress, around the Settler time period. It shows their various hardships, and in one scene Nelly is seen tying lover's knots to the underside of the couple's bedsprings, which is assumed to be an infertility cure from folklore. There is an alternate version of the video, that shows Nelly singing the song with a guitar near the sea.
Track listing
UK 2-track single UK 4-track single German 2-track single German 4-track single
