Put You On | Lido Pimienta: A Bold Voice Redefining Modern Latin Music
Lido Pimienta is one of the most visionary artists working today. Born in Colombia and based in Toronto, Pimienta creates music and fine art shaped by her experience as a Caribbean Indigenous Wayuu woman, work that bridges past and future, politics and poetry, tradition and experimentation.
From Colombia to Global Recognition
Pimienta first drew wide acclaim with her 2017 album La Papessa, which won the Polaris Prize and signaled a new force in Latin alternative music. Her breakthrough came in 2020 with Miss Colombia, a vivid blend of electronics, pop, and Afro-Caribbean rhythms inspired by her complicated relationship to her home country. The album earned praise from major outlets, GRAMMY and Latin GRAMMY nominations, and firmly established her as an artist willing to confront issues like colorism, anti-Blackness, and colonial history with sharp honesty.
A New Creative Leap: La Belleza
Her newest album, La Belleza, marks a dramatic shift. Composed during the pandemic, it finds Pimienta, who has no classical training, writing for full orchestra and choir alongside producer Owen Pallett. Influenced by European classical music, Gregorian chant, and the ethereal soundtrack of Valerie and Her Week of Wonders, the album uses orchestral intensity to explore ancestry, grief, love, and transformation.
Across nine movements, La Belleza reflects on Wayuu ceremonies, the Caribbean’s resistance to colonial erasure, the contradictions of beauty, and the fragility revealed during 2020. Yet it is also exuberant, full of renewal and emotional clarity, from the swelling overture “The Overturn” to intimate pieces like “Quiero Que Me Beses.”
An Artist Working Across Mediums
Pimienta’s creative world stretches beyond albums. In 2021 she became the first woman of color to compose for the New York City Ballet. In 2022 she launched the surreal, politically sharp variety series LIDO TV, featuring guests like Kittie and Nelly Furtado, whom she later supported as an A&R collaborator. Across every medium, her work remains uncompromising, humorous, and rooted in identity and community.
Why She Matters Now
La Belleza demonstrates why Pimienta is one of the most essential artists of the moment: curious, fearless, and uninterested in fitting into industry boxes. She closes the album by declaring, “Long live the Caribbean! Long live a FREE Caribbean!”—a reminder that her art is not only personal but generational.
For Pimienta, La Belleza is not an endpoint but another step in an ongoing evolution. The question isn’t whether she will surprise us again, but how.
