This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost Canada, which closed in 2021.

Britney Spears' Instagram Is Chock Full Of Talented Canadians

Anyone who loves Nelly Furtado is an honourary Canadian, right?

You’re not alone, Nelly Furtado stans: Britney Spears enjoys the underrated Canadian pop star’s music, too.

On Monday night, the global superstar posted a video of herself dancing on Instagram. No choreography, just freestyle, she explained in the caption.

Keen CanCon fans — or anyone who appreciates great pop music, really — would recognize the song that inspired her energetic improv as Nelly Furtado’s 2006 hit “Say It Right.” The song boasts Victoria-born Furtado’s distinctive voice, an truly infectious chorus, and production by Timbaland, and it’s fully deserving of Spears’ inspired twirls around her living room area.

Earlier this week, Spears shared her appreciation for another Canadian artist: Jenna Paddey, an illustrator based in Guelph, Ont. Paddey works full time designing creative and social media for a Guelph bridal shop, and sells her illustrations on the side.

On Monday, towards the end of her work day, she was pretty surprised when she started getting frantic messages telling her Britney Spears had shared some of her work.

“I was confused at first because the whole situation seemed very random,” Paddey told HuffPost Canada. “But I checked her profile and sure enough, she had posted an illustration of a bee I did two years ago.”

“I was really surprised but flattered,” she said. “It’s surreal when someone you’ve grown up hearing about and seeing on TV shares something that you created.”

The painting, a play on the phrase “queen bee,” was something she had made for fun in 2018.

“The original painting is small, so it’s pretty amusing that it’s gotten such a big response,” she said.

Since Spears posted Paddey’s painting — and tagged her for credit, because Britney says support local independent artists and don’t steal their work — there’s been a rush of traffic to Paddey’s Instagram account.

This week has been “wild and unexpected,” Paddey said, but she’s grateful for any new admirers Spears has turned her way. “It’s been a hilarious turn of events.”

No word yet about Britney’s plans for Canada Day.

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