Miss Colombia Incident Inspired Lido Pimienta's Music

Plain English

Lido Pimienta wearing a tall crystal tiara and a costume of bunched tulle in green, purple, yellow and pink. She's standing in front of purple curtains. On each side is a multi-tiered cake with white icing and blue decoration.

Lido Pimienta is a Colombian-Canadian musician and artist. Her music includes traditional and Afro-Colombian musical styles, as well as contemporary synthpop and electronic music.

Lido's latest album, Miss Colombia, is a mix of electronic music and folkloric cumbia. Cumbia is a form of music native to Colombia.

"Eso Que Tu Haces" by Lido Pimienta from the album "Miss Colombia"

The title of the album was inspired by an incident during the Miss Universe contest of 2015. The contest’s master of ceremonies, Steve Harvey, mistakenly awarded the crown to Miss Colombia instead of the actual winner, Miss Philippines. The documentary film about the making of the album starts with the famous incident.

Watch the documentary film about the making of the Miss Colombia album.

The incident made Lido Pimienta think about the anti-blackness she experienced as a child growing up in Barranquilla. But there was more to it. At home, her sister was being groomed to be a beauty queen. Meanwhile, Lido Pimienta suffered an awkward adolescence as the “weird artistic tomboy” of the family.

Lido Pimienta grew up in Colombia.

Childhood photograph of Lido Pimienta. She's wearing a white dress and white hair decoration.

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Lido moved to Ontario, Canada when she was 19 to join her mother and sister. She met the musician Michael Ramey there, whom she married and had a child with at 21.

She taught herself how to produce music.

Lido taught herself how to produce music via YouTube videos. She built a music recording studio at her home.

Lido Pimienta's music album La Papessa: Portrait of Lido Pimienta against a grren background. An lillustration of a circle with a white pattern around her head.

Lido Pimienta's album La Papessa.

For her album La Papessa, Lido Pimienta won the 2017 Polaris Music Prize. The award included a cash prize of $50,000.

Lido Pimienta performing on stage.

Lido takes her baby on her tours. Women in music ask her how she manages it. “When your only option is to bring your kid with you, you own it and normalise this shit,” she explains.

Lido Pimienta is brown-skinned. Her hair is black, long and in soft waves. She's kneeling in front of a blue and pink studio backdrop. She's holding two large bunches of flowers and her baby standing in front of her. The baby and Lido are smiling.

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Lido creates amazing artworks.

“A lot of my songwriting is inspired by the drawings that I make. The drawings that I make are inspired by my dreams. And the dreams that I have are influenced by my everyday life,” she says.

Different memory cards with paintings of colorful figures and patterns.

A Memory Card Game by Lido Pimienta. Lido sells her creations on her website because she wants to make art accessible.

Lido Pimienta creates art because she is driven to do so. “I'm just always doing my textiles, drawing, everything – whatever I feel when I wake up. I just have to do it because I have to do it.”