Nelly Furtado and her pal Timbaland both would like to help Britney Spears get her musical career back on track. (Sun Media files)

VICTORIA, B.C. - Nelly Furtado isn't surprised that Timbaland, the producer of her third and most successful album, Loose, has offered to work with the much-beleagured Britney Spears on her post-rehab album.

Should there be one.

"Not at all -- that's so him," Furtado, 29, told Sun Media, a few hours before launching her the Canadian leg of her Get Loose tour this week.

"He turned me on to Kelly Clarkson's CD. He invited Celine Dion on his latest album. I think that's why we get along. 'Cause I'm the same way, where I'll work with whoever if I think they're good, and it doesn't matter what popular opinion says.

"It's kind of like if you think someone has talent or is interesting, you're going to work with them. And he's a bit of a rebel and he always likes to be one step ahead of the game, and he is obsessed with freshness and originality. So no -- no suprise that he wanted to work with Britney."

Should Timbaland land the producing gig with Spears and ask Furtado to sing a duet on the record, would she consider it?

"Oh, yeah, I would," said Furtado, herself the mother of a 31/2-year-old daughter.

Furtado says she empathizes with Spears for what she has been going through.

"First of all, when she became a mother, I really felt for her in those situations where she was being caught doing, like, illegal things in her car with child seats and stuff," Furtado says. "I felt bad for her because you could tell that she was under such pressure from the paparazzi that she was behaving in rash ways. So that's what made me feel for her.

"And I can sympathize 'cause I'm a mother too, and I know those first couple of years are difficult. You know, you're becoming a new person. She's a young mother.

"I can't imagine what it would be like to mature in the spotlight from the age of 13 to 20. Those are precious years and it would be really hard to grow up in the spotlight. Breakdown is inevitable in that situation."

One theory has been that Spears, who shaved her head before entering rehab, is suffering from post-partum depression and just hasn't been diagnosed.

"Oh, yeah, totally possible," said Furtado, who appeared with Timbaland on The View this week to sing Give It To Me off his new album Shock Value.

"Human beings can only deal with so much when you're only one person. You know, you need an escape -- and then a lot of people choose to escape into the mind."