Between performances on "Saturday Night Live", "Rosie O'Donnell", "Conan O'Brien", not to mention an exhaustive regimen of interviews, multiple Juno-nominee Nelly Furtado has still found time to record a duet with the man who co-wrote and produced her platinum-selling debut, "Whoa, Nelly!", Philosopher Kings' frontman Gerald Eaton.

"I did a track with Gerald the other night for his solo record," says Furtado, while at home in Toronto earlier this week. "It's called 'A Fine Line.' I've got a whole couple of verses and I'm singing the choruses. It's a real duet. He's leaving for L.A. soon to finish the record. I could be there for the mix, he's saying."

The 22-year-old singer-songwriter, who's just been booked on David Letterman's "Late Show" Feb. 21, credits Eaton with convincing her to give music a shot as a career. She had made a half-hearted go of it when she last lived in Toronto in 1997. Then a teenager, Furtado had partnered with Tallis Newkirk, formerly of hip-hop act Plains Of Fascination, in a trip-hop project called Nelstar.

While the videoFACT board deemed the material good enough to receive a grant for the song "Like", and an A&R rep, then at A&M Records Canada (now Universal) was impressed enough with her demo package to meet with her, Furtado wasn't satisfied creatively.

"I don't know if it represented my personality enough, and it wasn't showcasing what I could do with my voice," she says.

Instead, she decided to return to her native Victoria, B.C., to enroll in creative writing at Camosun College, but before she left met Eaton at the all-female Toronto talent showcase Honey Jam. Furtado had landed an audition to sing at the show, and her friend in the group LAL had invited Eaton and his manager Chris Smith to the club (Lee's Palace) specifically to see her.

The following week, Eaton expressed interest in writing with her. The pair holed up in a writer's room at his label, Sony Music Canada, and emerged with two songs, a duet and an R&B song. While neither ended up on "Whoa, Nelly!", she recalls, "I was overcome with this happiness of working with a professional musician."

Once back in Victoria, she bought a guitar and started writing and performing at open mics around the city while attending school.

In the summer of '98, The Philosopher Kings came through town, and she went to see them at Edgefest. With some down-time ahead, Eaton, who had formed Track And Field Productions with P-Kings bandmate/guitarist Brian West, insisted she book a flight to Toronto. She finally agreed.

"When you make independent music for so long, you're just scared of all the paperwork and the music industry," Furtado says. "I didn't really know what I was talking about. It took someone with the leadership and guidance of Gerald. I probably owe it all to him, pretty much, in deciding to do music professionally."

The trio ended up working at West's home studio on the songs that would become "Whoa, Nelly!" and land her a recording contract with Dreamworks.

Furtado hadn't planned on returning to a studio again until she finished promoting the album. "I feel like I should give all my focus to making this record sound the best I can on tour," she explains.

But, heck, when Eaton asked, how could she resist?

"I can't believe I actually did it," she says of squeezing the session into her demanding schedule. "It was pretty awesome, and it was great being back in the studio with them because it's been almost a year. So we really had a lot of fun, and they were just impressed about how much I had improved already just by being on the road for a short time."

Furtado is on tour in Europe but will return to Canada to perform her own headlining show at Toronto's Phoenix Concert Theatre on March 1. Three days later, she'll find out just how many of the six Juno nominations for "Whoa, Nelly!" will turn into actual awards. She'll also perform at the ceremony, March 4, at Copps Coliseum in Hamilton, Ont.

With just a day to recuperate from what will undoubtedly be an exciting night for her, she begins a U.S. tour March 6 that takes her through to mid-April. She hopes to get her first Canadian tour in before the summer, including her first-ever in hometown Victoria since her success.

Meanwhile, the album version of what will be the second single, "Turn Off The Light," is already getting played at radio. A video will probably be ready in April, she says.

A spokesperson at Chris Smith Management says he has no information on when Eaton's solo album will be released, and that he is still recording.