Lido Pimienta Shares “Aún Te Quiero” From Upcoming Orchestral Album ‘La Belleza’
Today, GRAMMY and Latin GRAMMY-nominated artist Lido Pimienta shares her latest single “Aún Te Quiero”, the latest off her fully orchestral new album La Belleza set for release on May 16.
Co-produced by Pimienta and GRAMMY-nominated composer Owen Pallett, " “Aún Te Quiero” translates to 'I Still Love You'”, Pimienta explains. “I sing to the Lido of the past—to the people I once thought would be in my life forever. Friends, lovers, family. But falling-outs happen. We hurt each other. And yet, I’m a softie at heart—I still love all of them, even my enemies. There is so much I deal with as a mother and as a wife, there is so much about myself that I don't recognize or connect with anymore, it happens to most of us caregivers, when we carry the weight of the home. We can't always be there for everyone, and sometimes they can't be there for us either, but the message remains, I still love us, beyond our expiry date.”
Listen to “Aún Te Quiero”: https://youtu.be/4r_qEPbPz5I?si=_BipaWIBHh8XeTl5
In 2021, Pimienta and choreographer Andrea Miller became the first all-female team to compose and choreograph a piece of music for the New York City Ballet, Pimienta also being the first woman of color to do so. This collaboration helped inspire ‘La Belleza’.
Working with Ableton and her MIDI controller and alongside producer Owen Pallett—a fellow Polaris Prize winner and composer and arranger for the Sampha, Lana Del Rey, and the Her soundtrack—Pimienta felt herself repeatedly drawn to the Luboš Fišer soundtrack for the film Valerie and Her Week of Wonders and music from the second century; two direct influences were the solemn liturgical hymn Lux Aeterna, a Gregorian chant that is performed at Requiems (the mass of the dead) and sixteenth century singing of the Castrati, i.e. choirs of young boys that were castrated so that they would permanently keep their high-pitched singing voices.
“If no matter what style or genre of music I make, the result will always be relegated to the World Music aisle—in stores, in the algorithm—then why not create something no one would ever expect from a Caribbean woman?” Pimienta asked. “Why not make an album that completely defies those categories? What if I made an entirely orchestral record?”
‘La Belleza’ encapsulates why Lido Pimienta is the artist of our moment. Unafraid to explore the depths of her creativity, she produced a haunting, invigorating album that only prompts the question: What will come next?