Nelly Furtado set a speaker on fire when recording her song 'Maneater'.

The 45-year-old singer has recalled how flames burst out of the speaker as she recorded her 2006 hit when a beat got "played super loud" by producer Timbaland.

Speaking to The Guardian newspaper, Nelly recalled: "It was my first day working on (the album) 'Loose' with Timbaland and Danja. We were in Miami. Timbaland said: 'I made this beat for you' and played it super loud.

"Suddenly I smelled burning, there was all this smoke and a flame shot out of the speaker. Someone came to replace the speaker but it freaked us out: maybe we should put this song away till tomorrow. And we worked on a different song.

"It was a super weird start to 'Maneater', but a great start to the album."

Nelly also revealed that she has a basic technique for writing songs where she records "whatever comes out of my mouth".

The 'I'm Like a Bird' artist explained: "I turn the mic on and then it's just whatever comes out of my mouth. Usually a lyric and melody comes together or sometimes I just mumble until a melody and rhythm emerges.

"It's like a fusion of rapping and singing, but I always press record otherwise I forget what comes out. Sometimes I jam for hours and go back and pick bits or sometimes it comes in the first five minutes."

Meanwhile, Nelly revealed that she dreams of singing her track 'All Good Things (Come to an End)' live with Chris Martin after she penned the song together with the Coldplay frontman.

She said: "When I sing I'm super-internalised and kinda tripping out. I like to make people feel they can join in with that.

"My dream is to sing it live with Chris or Coldplay. That would be so cool."