Born in Barranquilla and now based in Toronto, Lido Pimienta has never had to choose between her home regions, her artistic disciplines, or her cultural heritages. On the eve of the release of Caribenya, her fourth studio album, tells the story of an artist who has transformed displacement, difference, and imposed labels into her own personal language.
Lido Pimienta: A Voice That Defies Categorization
In the video by “Tóxica”, the first track unveiled from Caribenya, the colors burst forth as the cumbia carries lyrics directed against toxic friendships. The track perfectly encapsulates Lido Pimienta’s approach: making people dance without sugarcoating what needs to be said. Her label describes the album as a work guided by connection, resistance, and the desire to break new sonic ground.
This freedom did not come about through a linear journey. It took root in Barranquilla, a city on Colombia’s Caribbean coast, with a mother of Wayuu descent. She has also publicly asserted her Afro-Colombian and Indigenous identity. In her late teens, she left Colombia for Canada, where she had to rebuild her sense of self and find her place in a new music scene.
Before winning any awards, Lido Pimienta found her first sense of freedom in Barranquilla’s punk and hardcore scenes. There, she came to understand that music can be at once a refuge, a means of self-expression, and a form of resistance. This experience helps explain why her work subsequently rejects the distinction between the personal, the political, and the collective.
From Barranquilla to Toronto: Creating Your Own Space
For her, migration is not merely a backdrop to her life story. It shapes a body of work that bridges multiple languages, memories, and traditions. In this work, electronic music can meet cumbia, Afro-Colombian rhythms, orchestral composition, or songs tied to her ancestry. Rather than choosing one identity over another, the artist creates a dialogue among them according to her own rules.
The first major turning point comes with *La Papessa*. In 2017, the album won the Polaris Music Prize, awarded to the best Canadian album based on artistic merit, regardless of genre, sales, or record label. Upon receiving the award, Lido Pimienta emphasizes that her work is not sung in English or French, yet it is very much present. This recognition confirms that an independent Spanish-speaking voice can make its mark without having to translate or dilute its identity.
Miss Colombia: Between Love and Disagreement
With Miss Colombia, released in 2020, she takes an unflinching look at her homeland. The album celebrates Colombian cultures while examining racism, misogyny, and the erasure of Black and Indigenous legacies. This tension between attachment and anger is what gives the album its power. Miss Colombia went on to receive a nomination at the 2021 Grammy Awards in the Best Latin Rock or Alternative Album category.
However, Lido Pimienta does not build her world through sound alone. Her work extends to performance and the visual arts. Costumes, colors, bodies, and set design all contribute to the storytelling. Each project thus becomes a complete world, designed to be heard but also seen. This mastery of imagery allows her to portray femininity, motherhood, desire, and memory without subjecting them to the industry’s usual conventions.
From *La Belleza* to *Caribenya*: Rejecting Repetition
In 2025, La Belleza marks a new direction. Conceived with a 66-piece orchestra, the album allows him to explore orchestral composition and challenge the boundaries that often confine non-white artists to the “world music” category alone. So Lido Pimienta isn’t trying to replicate the success of Miss Colombia; rather, she continues to expand the creative space she has carved out for herself.
Caribenya, scheduled for July 17, 2026, is taking a more physical direction. Originally conceived as an extension of La Belleza, the project became a standalone album, presented as the spiritual successor to Miss Colombia. Resistance there also takes the form of joy, dance, and moments of escape. This choice serves as a reminder that commitment is not expressed solely through seriousness.
A Unique Place in the Contemporary Caribbean
Lido Pimienta’s strength ultimately lies in her constant refusal to downplay herself in order to fit into an existing category. She brings to light a Caribbean that is continental, Colombian, and diasporic, without claiming to speak for the entire region. From Barranquilla to Toronto, her journey shows that an artist can embody multiple worlds without sacrificing any of them. With Caribenya, a new question arises: now that she has created her own space, how far will she choose to expand it?
Lido Pimienta is a singer, songwriter, visual artist, and performer born in Barranquilla, on Colombia’s Caribbean coast. Based in Canada, she creates work that draws on her Colombian roots, her experience with migration, electronic music, and Afro-Colombian rhythms.
Lido Pimienta embodies a continental, Colombian, and diasporic Caribbean perspective that has yet to receive much attention in French-language media. She blends multiple languages, disciplines, and traditions without compromising her identity to fit into the music industry’s categories. Her projects combine music, performance, costumes, and visual arts.
Caribenya marks a new chapter in Lido Pimienta’s career. The album continues her exploration of memory, resistance, and Caribbean heritage, while giving more space to dance, desire, and joy. It showcases an artist who continues to expand her artistic universe without simply repeating her previous successes.
