Lido Pimienta


Lido Pimienta is a Colombian Canadian musician, singer, and songwriter. She rose to prominence after her 2016 album, La Papessa, won the $50,000 2017 Polaris Music Prize. Her music incorporates a variety of styles and influences, including traditional indigenous and Afro-Colombian musical styles, as well as contemporary synthpop and electronic music.

Early life

Originally from Barranquilla, Colombia, she later immigrated to Canada, settling in London, Ontario, before moving to Toronto, where she is currently based. Her father died when she was six years old.

Career

Pimienta released her debut album, Color, in 2010. The album was produced by Michael Ramey, Pimienta's husband at the time, and was released by Los Angeles based music label KUDETA. After Pimienta and Ramey separated, Pimienta took time to pursue a degree in art criticism, in addition to learning more about music production, before releasing her second album, La Papessa, in 2016. That year, she also collaborated with A Tribe Called Red on several tracks for their 2016 album We Are the Halluci Nation.
Following the release of her experimental album La Papessa, which was self-produced by Pimienta, she was awarded the $50,000 2017 Polaris Music Prize, which is considered Canada's top juried music award. The Globe and Mail called her "the future of Canadian rock and roll", and dubbed her the "artist of the year".
During her performance at the Halifax Pop Explosion music festival on October 19, 2017, Pimienta, as she often does during her concerts, invited the "brown girls to the front". According to a statement that was subsequently released by the festival, "the incident involved a white volunteer photographer and several white audience members who reacted negatively" to Pimienta's request. When the photographer refused to move after ten separate requests, Pimienta said, "you're cutting into my set time and you're disrespecting these women, and I don't have time for this". The volunteer was removed from the show and the festival organizers later apologized to Pimienta, and said they would increase "anti-oppression and anti-racism training".
In addition to working as a musician, Pimienta is also a visual artist and curator, and her work has been described as exploring "the politics of gender, race, motherhood, identity and the construct of the Canadian landscape in the Latin American"; her work was exhibited in the group exhibition FEMINISTRY IS HERE at Mercer Union gallery in Toronto.

Personal life

Pimienta identifies as queer. She is of mixed Afro-Colombian and Wayuu descent. She is a single mother.

Discography