Missing colombia
IN ONE OF POWERFUL MOMENTS, LIDO Pimienta’s voice moves from floating over the rhythms to powerfully pushing right out on the chorus. The song, “Eso Que Tu Haces,” can be read as a comment on relationships, but also on the lasting impact of colonialism: “That thing you do is not love.” Lush, poetic and powerful, it’s an exemplar of Pimienta’s latest album, a project that questions representation and what it means to be from, as well as miss, Colombia.
After all, Pimienta has lived in Canada for ten years now. “I go to Colombia and it feels really weird.” She adds, “And then the Miss Universe scandal happened,” referring to when actor Steve Harvey erroneously announced Miss Colombia as the winner of Miss Universe 2015 instead of Miss Philippines.
“It just all came together. Colombians are hurting and are up in arms because of a crown. I wish we could apply this energy to all the children that are dying of the lack of clean water. I am not even a part of that narrative anymore. Maybe the Colombia that I miss is the Colombia of my nostalgic memories, you know?
“But then if I really dig deep, then the memories are really dark, so maybe I’m just going to create a new Colombia and I’m going to dress myself in cotton candy and I’m going to bring cakes and bedazzle, put bows on motorcycles and everything is going to be okay. You know, I’m just gonna pretend that everything is okay, like a good Colombian,” she laughs.
Lido Pimienta’s image of Colombia is ex
MOST pansive, experimental and wide-ranging. There are soft, mellifluous, a cappella songs that layer voice, melody and percussion, all created vocally. Then there are enormous songs that explode with sound and instrumentation. The ethereal quality of her Polaris Music Prize-winning La Papessa is still there, but Pimienta has added more texture and colour. The word that comes to mind is “vibrant.”
Pimienta agrees: “The album has a lot of layers filled with lots of layers. I love to see a project with 58 channels. I also relate it to blood, to DNA. Somebody like me has a lot of mixed ancestry. It’s evident in what I choose to listen to. The things that I’m inspired by, the things that move me and motivate me, are all cultures and sounds that come from many different places where I belong. It’s my character. I can’t escape it.”
Showcasing Afro-Colombian music and traditional sounds, Pimienta is also committed to presenting past and present. Not only does the legendary group Sexteto Tabalá appear on the album, but one track, essentially an interview, allows band leader Rafael Cassiani Cassiani to speak about his music and its history.
“I think there is this need or trend of ‘We’re going to add a grand piano to merengue. We are going to add this electric bass to this cumbia,’” explains Pimienta. “I don’t need to add a synth to this Tabalá song. I don’t need to do that. We just need to sing together. I can’t call an album Miss Colombia and not have an element of pure Colombian performance, you know?”