LIDO PIMIENTA
The Cool Creative Confidence of Miss Colombia
L
By Andrew King | Photos by Daniella Murillo
ido Pimienta doesn’t con-
cern herself with conven-
tion; in fact, she’s built her
artistic identity and subse-
quent career while laughing
in its face – and her approach has
proven to be rather fruitful thus far.
In 2017, Pimienta won the Polaris
Music Prize for her breakthrough al-
bum, La Papessa, beating out peers
like Feist and Leonard Cohen to claim
the coveted title of best Canadian al-
bum of the year based solely on ar-
tistic merit. As a result, expectations
are high and anticipation is palpable
34 C A N A D I A N M U S I C I A N
for its follow-up, Miss Colombia, set
to drop in mid-April 2020.
But again, Pimienta doesn’t seem
too concerned – at least not about
the first part – because regardless
of how it charts or how many clum-
sy genre labels reviewers stick to it,
she’s created something definitive,
transgressive, and ultimately transfor-
mative. She knows it, and isn’t afraid
to say so.
“Everything that I do, whether
it’s a music video or photo shoot or
song or painting, I control. I’m be-
hind it and I’m controlling it,” Pimienta
asserts, speaking to Canadian Musi-
cian on the final evening of an ex-
tended visit to her native Colombia.
“That’s very important to me because
I am a woman, and I have been trau-
matized in my past experience of
people taking credit for my work and
all that. I know that I have to be very
fierce and stand by my work and not
be humble about it, because humil-
ity, when it comes to your work, is
poisonous. You need confidence to
know when it’s good, know when it’s
shit, and know when you need to
start again.”