Daily Dose is your daily source for the song you absolutely, positively need to hear every day. Curated by the Paste Music Team.
Lido Pimienta, based in Toronto and born in Colombia to a mother with indigenous Wayuu ancestry, describes her work as “música glamurosa dramática y de terror patético//dramatic and glamorous music of pathetic terror.” Her electronic art-pop might sound playful, but she’s not playing around: Pimienta’s songs are deeply confrontational, interrogating racism, patriarchy and other systems of oppression through the intersecting lenses of her identity. In 2017, she was the first artist recording in a language other than English or French to win Canada’s prestigious Polaris Prize, for her Spanish-language album, La Papessa.
Her new track, “No Pude,” is her first since La Papessa. Here, she’s exploring her ambivalent feelings towards her home country of Colombia, where protestors have been speaking out against the conservative government for the past several weeks in light of widespread murder of indigenous people and social justice advocates, as well as economic injustices and threats to public education. “I just could not give myself to you (anymore),” she sings (in English translation), her ethereal voice paired with claustrophobic beats.
Pimienta interpolates the Sound of Music classic “My Favorite Things” throughout “No Pude”—adding an even more bittersweet tone to her love-hate ode to her home country of Colombia. “No pude means: I could not. In the context of the song it means something to the effect of, ‘I am tired of trying,’” she says. “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.”
Watch the “No Pude” video, directed by Fitto Segura and with art direction from Orly Anan, below.