Loose is the third studio album by Canadian singer-songwriter Nelly Furtado, released on 7 June 2006, by Geffen Records and Mosley Music Group.

It reached high positions on the record charts of several markets, including number one in ten countries, and as of 2019, it has sold more than 10 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling albums of the 2000s.

Furtado cited Madonna's 1998 album Ray of Light as a major influence, saying "she was smooth but sexy, universal, epic, iconic!"

[3] Furtado began work on Loose by holding with emcee Jelleestone what she referred to as a "hip-hop workshop", in which they would "write rhymes, dissect them, and try different flows over beats.

[7] In Miami, Florida, Furtado collaborated with Pharrell (who introduced her to reggaeton and who gave her a "shout-out" in his 2005 single "Can I Have It Like That") and Scott Storch (with whom she recorded a "straight-up rap song") before entering the studio with Timbaland.

[6] She recorded an unreleased collaboration with Justin Timberlake, "Crowd Control", which she described as "kind of sexy" and "a cute, clubby, upbeat, fun track".

[17] Loose was also named partly for the R&B girl group TLC, who Furtado said she admires for "taking back their sexuality, showing they were complete women.

"[18] She said she wanted the album to be "assertive and cool" and "sexy but fun", like TLC, MC Lyte, Queen Latifah and Janet Jackson, who inspired Furtado because, as she put it, she was "comfortable in her sexuality and womanhood" when her 1993 single "That's the Way Love Goes" was released.

Produced primarily by Timbaland and Danja, Loose showcases Furtado experimenting with a more R&B–hip-hop sound and, as she put it, the "surreal, theatrical elements of '80s music".

[4] She has categorized the album's sound as punk-hop, which she describes as Eurythmics-influenced "modern, poppy, spooky music" and stated that "there's a mysterious, after-midnight vibe to [it] that's extremely visceral.

"[15] Furtado has described the album as "more urban, more American, more hip-hop, [and] more simplified" than her earlier work, which she said was more layered and textured because she "tend[s] to overthink things."

[6] According to Furtado, instead of "pristine stuff," the album features "really raw" elements such as distorted bass lines, laughter from studio outtakes and general "room for error.

[25] The opening track, "Afraid" (featuring rapper Attitude), depicts Furtado's fear of what people think of her, and she has said that the chorus reminds her of "walking down the hall in high school ... because you live from the outside in.

The up-tempo song has prominent electropop and synthpop influences and is lyrically related to how people become "hot on themselves" when dancing in their underwear in front of a mirror.

"[32] The seventh track, "Te Busqué", which features Latin singer Juanes, is about Furtado's experiences with depression, which she said she has had periodically since she was around seventeen years old.

[32] Furtado said she was unsure what "Say It Right" is about, but that it encapsulates her feeling when she wrote it and "taps into this other sphere";[4] in an interview for The Sunday Times, it was mentioned that it is about her breakup with DJ Jasper Gahunia, the father of her daughter.

Furtado described the show as a "full sensory experience" with "a beginning, middle and end ... [it] takes you on a journey", also stressing the importance of crowd involvement and "spontaneity and rawness, because those are my roots, you know?

"Te Busqué" was the lead single in Spain because of the limited success hip-hop/R&B-influenced songs in the style of "Promiscuous" and "Maneater" achieved in the country.

[62] In a mixed review, Nick Catucci of The Village Voice felt that Furtado "sauces up a bit too luridly" and lacks "chemistry" with Timbaland, writing that Loose "isn't a love child, but a bump-and-grind that never finds a groove".

"[64] In his consumer guide for The Village Voice, Robert Christgau gave the album a "B" and named it "dud of the month",[59] indicating "a bad record whose details rarely merit further thought.

[66] In late July, after Furtado embarked on a short tour of Canada and made a guest appearance on the television show Canadian Idol, the album returned to number one.

[83] The album entered the chart in Germany at number one, spent a record forty-nine weeks in the German top ten,[84] and was certified five times platinum.

[89] Considerable attention was generated by the more sexual image of Furtado presented in promotion and publicity for the album, particularly in the music videos for "Promiscuous" and "Maneater", in which she dances around with her midriff exposed.

[9][20] According to Maclean's magazine, some said that Furtado's progression was a natural transformation of a pop singer; others believed that she had "sold out" in an effort to garner record sales, particularly after her second album was a commercial failure in comparison to her first.

[20] Maclean's wrote that her makeover "seems a bit forced" and contrasted her with singers such as Madonna and Emily Haines of Metric: "[they] seem to be completely in control, even somewhat intimidating in their sexuality: they've made a calculated decision for commercial and feminist reasons.

The writer also criticised Furtado's discussion of her buttocks and apparent rejection of feminism in a Blender magazine interview, writing: "Girls, do you hear that churning?

Furtado was "still demure compared to many of her competitors"—she avoided sporting lingerie or performing "Christina Aguilera-style gyrations or calisthenics" in the "Promiscuous" and "Maneater" videos.

"[9] However, a 2015 retrospective review of the album by Adria Young for Vice noted that, "When Loose's second single 'Promiscuous' started its 24-hour rotations across Canada, Furtado was immediately and notably one of the first Canadian artists to experience public slut-shaming.

"[91] Young further contends that, "the media also focused on bullshit like the kind of 'example' [Furtado] was setting, the 'tarting up' of a Canadian good-girl, romantic relationships between her and producers, her sexual orientation, her clothing, her 'midriff' and all kinds of superficial, sexist crap that had nothing to do with her music, what her music meant or what strength it might give to other women struggling with the very same gender dichotomies and double-standards around sexuality that the album was trying to explore.

[95] In January 2008, Turkish newspapers reported that Kalan Müzik, the record label that released Turkish folk singer Muhlis Akarsu's album Ya Dost Ya Dost, pressed charges against Furtado for the Loose track "Wait for You", which label officials said features the bağlama instrumental part of Akarsu's song "Allah Allah Desem Gelsem".