Lido Pimienta Releases First New Song In Three Years, “No Pude”

Updated:

December 2, 2019 1:52 pm

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Lido Pimienta is a Toronto-based, Colombian-born interdisciplinary musician and artist-curator. Today she has released the track “No Pude”, her first new music since the release of her 2016 Polaris Prize-winning album La Papessa. Directed by Fitto Segura with art direction from Orly Anan, listen + watch her colorful and emotive new video for “No Pude” HERE. Filled with both longing and heartache, the song’s opening lines translate in English to:

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“Oh it pains me / Oh, in my heart / Oh, it pains me / Oh, in my heart / I could not open up to you / to the level I can now / I just could not give myself to you (anymore) / I could not even see you and could not even resist it – now / I just could not give myself to you (anymore)”

“No pude means: I could not. In the context of the song it means something to the effect of, ‘I am tired of trying’,” Pimienta explained. “The words speak directly to the sense of dread and constant anxiety my home country gives me. ‘No Pude’ sums up the love / hate relationship I have with Colombia. I hold Colombia close to my heart and my soul, but that loves turns into rage and shame as fast as a match takes to burn.”

In 2016, Pimienta’s album La Papessa was the first 100% independently released and the first non-English-or-French album to win Canada’s prestigious Polaris prize. “Pimienta’s Spanish-language LP is unstoppable electronic art-pop, marked by an elegant sort of fierceness,” said the Globe and Mail.

Pimienta has performed, exhibited and curated around the world since 2002, exploring the politics of gender, race, motherhood, identity and the construct of the Canadian landscape in the Latin American diaspora and vernacular. Her music takes listeners on a journey, from traditional Afro-Colombian percussion to global bass and darker avant-garde electronic sounds while her piercing, explosive and heartwarming voice unites the compositions, beats and harmonies, resulting in a perfect labor of love and sound that highlights the creative voice of this talented artist.