Doja Cat facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Doja Cat
Doja Cat in 2024
Born	Amala Ratna Zandile Dlamini (1995-10-21) October 21, 1995 (age 29) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Occupation	Rapper singer songwriter record producer
Years active	2012–present
Works	Discography
Parent(s)	Dumisani Dlamini (father)
Awards	Full list
Musical career
Genres	Hip-hop pop R&B pop rap
Labels	Kemosabe RCA

Amala Ratna Zandile Dlamini (Zulu pronunciation: [ˈzandile ˈɮamini]; born October 21, 1995), known professionally as Doja Cat (/ˈdoʊdʒə/), is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, and record producer. Born and raised in Los Angeles, California, she began making and releasing music on SoundCloud as a teenager. Her song "So High" caught the attention of Kemosabe and RCA Records, with whom she signed a recording contract prior to the release of her debut extended play, Purrr! in 2014.

After a hiatus from releasing music and the uneventful rollout of her debut studio album, Amala (2018), Doja Cat earned viral success as an internet meme with her 2018 single "Mooo!", a novelty song in which she makes humorous claims about being a cow. Capitalizing on her growing popularity, she released her second studio album, Hot Pink, in the following year. The album later reached the top ten of the US Billboard 200 and spawned the single "Say So"; its remix featuring Nicki Minaj topped the Billboard Hot 100. Her third studio album, Planet Her (2021), spent four weeks at number two on the Billboard 200 and spawned the top ten singles "Kiss Me More" (featuring SZA), "Need to Know", and "Woman". Her fourth studio album, Scarlet (2023), adopted a hip-hop-oriented sound and peaked within the top five of the Billboard 200, while its lead single "Paint the Town Red" became her most successful song to date, as it marked her first solo number-one on the Hot 100 among eight other countries.

Described by The Wall Street Journal as "a skilled technical rapper with a strong melodic sense and a bold visual presence", Doja Cat is known for creating videos and performances which achieve virality on social media platforms such as TikTok. Well-versed in Internet culture, she is also famed for her absurdist online personality and stage presence. She has received numerous accolades throughout her career, including one Grammy Award from sixteen nominations, five Billboard Music Awards, five American Music Awards, and five MTV Video Music Awards. She is one of the biggest commercial artists of the 2020s according to Billboard, and was included on the 100 most influential people in the world by Time in 2023.

Early life and education

Amala Ratna Zandile Dlamini was born on October 21, 1995, in the Tarzana neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. Her mother, Deborah Sawyer, is an American graphic designer of Jewish heritage, and her father, Dumisani Dlamini, is a South African performer of Zulu descent, best known for starring as Crocodile in the original Broadway cast of the musical Sarafina! and the 1992 film adaptation. The two had a brief relationship after meeting in New York City where Dumisani performed on Broadway, but he was too busy on tour to spend time with Amala and her brother. He said that he left his family in the US for South Africa out of homesickness, in the hopes that they would join him there, yet Dlamini has suggested on multiple occasions that she is estranged from her father, stating that she "never met him." Her father has denied these claims, claiming that he has a "healthy" relationship with his daughter and that her management team had tried to block all his attempts to contact her out of the fear that they "might lose her."

Soon after her birth, Dlamini moved from Tarzana to Rye, New York, where she lived for five years with her maternal grandmother, an architect and painter. At the age of eight, Dlamini returned to California with her mother and brother to live at the Sai Anantam Ashram, a commune in Agoura Hills, and practiced Hinduism for four years. While living at the commune, Dlamini started wearing head-covering scarves and singing bhajans at temple, yet disclosed how she felt like she could not "be a kid" during her time there.

Her family then moved to Oak Park, where she started attending dance lessons and experienced a "sporty childhood", often skateboarding and visiting Malibu for surf camps. Dlamini and her brother were also subjected to racial prejudice as some of the only mixed-race children in the area.

As she grew older and moved away from the ashram, she attended breakdancing classes and joined a professional poplocking troupe, with whom she competed in dance battles throughout Los Angeles while still attending high school. Her aunt, a vocal coach, had given Dlamini singing lessons to help her audition for Central Los Angeles Area New High School #9, a performing arts high school in Los Angeles. She frequently skipped school to participate in online chatrooms. After becoming discouraged about her education and career path, Dlamini claims that she realized in eleventh grade that "performing and music was all [she] ever cared about." She eventually dropped out at age 16 while in her junior year, attributing this decision to her struggles with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), saying that "it felt like I was stuck in one spot and everybody else was progressing constantly."

Career

2012–2017: Career beginnings and record deal

Doja Cat has described life after dropping out of school as "messy", claiming that she slept on the floor and spent "all night and day" browsing the internet, looking for beats and instrumentals from YouTube which she downloaded and used to create her own music. After becoming fascinated with internet culture and websites like EBaum's World and Myspace, she taught herself to sing, rap and use GarageBand while at home without a job, frequently making music and uploading it to SoundCloud. In late 2012, "So High" became the first permanent upload on her SoundCloud account. Doja Cat began her career in the Los Angeles underground hip-hop scene, performing at parties and cyphers, and connecting with rappers such as Busdriver, Ill Camille and VerBS, the latter of whom claims to have helped hone her craft and find her first gig. It was during this time that she met producer Jerry "Tizhimself" Powell, who had stumbled upon her SoundCloud account. He introduced her to record producer Yeti Beats, who invited her to record at his studio in the neighbourhood of Echo Park, which also served as "an oasis of sorts for Doja to escape from the turmoil at home". Yeti Beats then connected her with Kemosabe Records, an imprint of RCA Records, where she signed under label executive Dr. Luke and his publishing company Prescription Songs at the age of 17. This deal also came with a temporary artist management partnership with Roc Nation.

In August 2014, Doja Cat released her debut EP, Purrr!, described as "spacey, eastern-influenced R&B" by The Fader. "So High" was repackaged and released as her solo commercial debut single prior to the EP's release, and was later featured on the Fox series Empire in the third episode of the show's first season. In mid-2015, Doja Cat temporarily signed to OG Maco's label, OGG. Following the signing, in late 2016, Maco and Doja Cat collaborated on the song "Monster", from Maco's 2017 mixtape, Children of The Rage. She had started experiencing writer's block, which led her to decline American singer Billie Eilish's offer to feature on what would later become her popular 2017 single "Bellyache". .....

2018–2019: Amala and "Mooo!"

Her first major commercial release in four years, Doja Cat released the song "Roll with Us" in February 2018 following a brief hiatus. The following month, she released "Go to Town" as the lead single from her debut album, with an accompanying music video. "Candy" was released as the album's second single that same month. The track would later become a sleeper hit after a "dance challenge" on the video-sharing platform TikTok went viral in late 2019. The single consequently charted in countries such as Australia, Canada and the United States, with the latter having the song peak at 86 on the Billboard Hot 100, making this her first solo entry on the chart.

Doja Cat performing in October 2018 after the success of "Mooo!"

On March 30, 2018, Doja Cat's debut studio album Amala was released through RCA and Kemosabe Records. Its release was largely uneventful, as it was ignored by critics and failed to chart in any market.

In August 2018, Doja Cat self-published the homemade music video for "Mooo!", a novelty song with absurdist lyrics in which she fantasizes about being a cow. The video promptly garnered viral success as an internet meme, attaining over three million views in one week. Due to popular demand following this viral success, the single version of "Mooo!" was released onto digital platforms later that month as the lead single from the deluxe edition of Amala. This was followed by the release of the second single, "Tia Tamera" featuring Rico Nasty, and its accompanying music video in February 2019. The full deluxe edition of Amala was released on March 1, 2019, and featured the bonus tracks "Mooo!", "Tia Tamera" and "Juicy". The success of "Mooo!" is believed to have "irrefutably proved" to her record labels that Doja Cat was a marketable artist, which led them to start paying more attention to her.

2019–2020: Breakthrough with Hot Pink

A remix version of Doja Cat's song "Juicy", from the deluxe version of Amala, added a verse from American rapper Tyga and was released alongside a music video in August 2019 as the lead single from her second studio album. Following the release of the remix, the song debuted at number 83 on the Billboard Hot 100, marking Doja Cat's first entry on the chart, and ultimately peaked at number 41. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) would later award the song a platinum certification in the United States. The song's success led to Amala debuting for the first time on the Billboard 200 chart that same month.

This was followed by the release of the single "Rules" alongside the announcement of her second studio album Hot Pink. Hot Pink was released on November 7, 2019, to generally favorable reviews. The album would eventually peak at number 9 on the Billboard 200. Doja Cat was meant to feature on a track titled "Broward Coward" from an early version of American rapper XXXTentacion's fourth studio album, Bad Vibes Forever, however the song was ultimately scrapped when the album tracklist was completely revised for its posthumous release in December 2019.

Doja Cat performing at the Hot Pink release party

In January 2020, "Say So" was sent to radio to become the fourth single off of her album Hot Pink. The song was originally released alongside the album in November 2019, but gained wider popularity through the video-sharing platform TikTok. She performed the song on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in February 2020. The next day, she released the music video for the song, directed by Hannah Lux Davis. The solo version of "Say So" peaked at number five on the Hot 100, becoming her first top-ten single, and was the most streamed song of 2020 by a female artist in the United States. In May 2020, following the release of a remix of "Say So" featuring Nicki Minaj, the single topped the Billboard Hot 100, becoming the first number-one single for both artists, and the first ever female rap collaboration to peak atop the chart.

In March 2020, Doja Cat was set to embark on the Hot Pink Tour in support of the album, before it was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. She was featured on a remix of the Weeknd's single "In Your Eyes" in May 2020, as well as on the single "Shimmy" by rapper Lil Wayne from the deluxe version of his 2020 album Funeral. At the 20th BET Awards, Doja Cat was nominated for two awards, Best Female Hip Hop Artist and Video of the Year. In August 2020, her song "Freak", which had been on SoundCloud since 2018, was officially released on digital platforms.

Doja Cat won the award for Push Best New Artist at the 2020 MTV Video Music Awards, where she also performed a medley of the songs "Say So" and "Like That". She was credited as a lead artist on the remix for Chloe x Halle's song "Do It", which also featured City Girls and Mulatto, the following month. She was featured alongside Australian singer Sia on the track "Del Mar" from Puerto Rican singer Ozuna's 2020 album Enoc, also released in September. The "Juicy" remix featuring Tyga was nominated for Top R&B Song at the 2020 Billboard Music Awards. In October 2020, Doja Cat was featured on American singer Bebe Rexha's single "Baby, I'm Jealous", the lead single from Rexha's second studio album, Better Mistakes. She performed a burlesque-themed medley of "Juicy", "Say So" and "Like That" at the 2020 Billboard Music Awards, inspired by Chicago and Moulin Rouge. That same month, Doja Cat performed both "Baby, I'm Jealous" with Rexha and "Del Mar" with Ozuna on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Kimmel Live!, respectively. Doja Cat was featured on the album track "Motive" from Ariana Grande's 2020 album Positions, which peaked at number 32 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming both her highest debut and second-ever top 40 entry.

Doja Cat in 2020

Doja Cat performed a metal rendition of "Say So" at the 2020 MTV Europe Music Awards ceremony, where she also won the award for Best New Act. She won the award for The New Artist of 2020 at the 46th People's Choice Awards. She additionally won both New Artist of the Year and Favourite Soul/R&B Female Artist at the 2020 American Music Awards ceremony, where she performed "Baby, I'm Jealous" with Bebe Rexha. On December 24, 2020, Doja Cat released a series of videos on her YouTube channel named "Hot Pink Sessions" where she performed three songs twice with two different "looks". On December 31, 2020, Doja Cat performed "Say So", "Like That", and "Juicy" at the annual Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve show.

According to sales in the United States, Billboard ranked Doja Cat at number five on both the Top New Artists of 2020 and Top Female Artists of 2020 charts. After her on-demand audio streams in the U.S. increased by 300% from 2019, Rolling Stone ranked her at number one on their list of the ten biggest breakthrough artists of 2020. Forbes named Doja Cat "one of the top breakout stars of 2020" while including her on their annual 30 Under 30 list. Doja Cat was the fourth most-Googled musician of 2020 in the United States.

2021–2022: Planet Her

On January 7, 2021, Doja Cat was featured on the single "Best Friend" by rapper Saweetie, and appeared in the accompanying music video. The following week, Doja Cat appeared alongside Megan Thee Stallion on the remix of "34+35" by Ariana Grande. Following the release of the remix, the song reached a new peak of number two on the Billboard Hot 100. In early 2021, Doja's song "Streets" became a sleeper hit after live performances of the song went viral on TikTok. TikTok also spawned a viral challenge which uses a mashup of "Streets" and "Put Your Head on My Shoulder" by Paul Anka. This caused the song to enter the Billboard Hot 100, where it peaked at number 16. Doja Cat was nominated for three awards at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards: herself for Best New Artist and "Say So" being nominated for Record of the Year and Best Pop Solo Performance. In 2021, she was placed on "Time's 100 Next" list, which highlights 100 emerging figures, with her write-up being penned by American rapper Lil Nas X.

Doja Cat revealed the title of her third studio album, Planet Her, in a March 2021 interview with V. On April 10, the song "Kiss Me More" featuring SZA was released alongside a music video as the lead single for the album. It received critical acclaim, and commercial success, spending nineteen consecutive weeks within the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100, breaking the record for the most weeks in the top 10 by a female collaboration. The song peaked at number three and became Doja Cat's third top 10 hit. Later that month, Doja Cat performed the songs "Best Friend" with Saweetie, "Rules", "Streets" and a solo version of "Kiss Me More" at Triller's inaugural Fight Club event. On April 23, 2021, Doja Cat launched an NFT marketplace titled "Juicy Drops". In May 2021, Doja Cat won the award for Top Female R&B Artist at the 2021 Billboard Music Awards, where she performed "Kiss Me More" with SZA. Later that month, she performed a solo version of the same song in a medley with "Streets" and "Say So" at the 2021 iHeartRadio Music Awards, where she won the award for Best New Pop Artist.

Doja Cat in July 2021

The song "Need to Know" was released alongside a music video as the first promotional single from Planet Her on June 11, 2021. Doja Cat wrote that it was released in anticipation of the "more important" second single, which was confirmed to be "You Right" with the Weeknd. Doja Cat officially announced the release of Planet Her and revealed its tracklist and album art via social media a few hours before the release of "Need to Know". The album was released to generally positive reviews, and opened at number two on the Billboard 200 where it remained for another two weeks, becoming the first album to spend its first three weeks at number two on the chart since The Pinkprint (2014) by Nicki Minaj in January 2015. Elsewhere, it topped the charts in New Zealand, and landed in the top 5 in countries such as the United Kingdom, Australia, Norway and Ireland.

Doja Cat guest starred as the temporary romantic interest of American rapper and comedian Lil Dicky in the second season of the TV series Dave, which premiered on June 16, 2021. On September 10, she was announced as a Pepsi ambassador and starred in an advertisement in which she performs a modern reenactment of the song "You're the One That I Want" from the musical film Grease, as part of a campaign celebrating the launch of the Pepsi-Cola Soda Shop. Her first-ever gig as a television presenter, Doja Cat hosted the 2021 MTV Video Music Awards ceremony, where she also performed the songs "Been Like This" and "You Right". She won the awards for Best Collaboration (shared with SZA for "Kiss Me More") and Best Art Direction (shared with Saweetie for "Best Friend"), among nominations for Artist of the Year, Video of the Year and Best Visual Effects. It is the first time in history where a nominee in the Video of the Year category hosted the ceremony in that same year. Doja Cat was praised for her presenting abilities, with Pitchfork noting that she "reinvent[ed] award-show hosting".

Doja Cat was featured on the song "Scoop" from Lil Nas X's debut studio album Montero (2021), which was released on September 17, and then on the song "Icy Hot" from American rapper Young Thug's second studio album Punk (2021), which was released on October 15. That same month, she reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 Songwriters chart for the first time in her career, and also became the first rapper to place three top 10 songs on the US Mainstream Top 40, with "You Right", "Need to Know" and "Kiss Me More". She featured alongside Saweetie on French Montana's song "Handstand" from his fourth studio album They Got Amnesia (2021). The music video for Planet Her's fourth single, "Woman", was released on December 3. According to Billboard, Doja Cat closed 2021 as the bestselling female R&B and hip-hop artist in the US, and the fourth bestselling female artist overall, additionally placing six songs on the year-end Hot 100. Planet Her was also the sixth best-selling album in the US, and the fifth most streamed album globally on Spotify in 2021. In 2022, Doja Cat won the awards for Female Rapper of the Year and Performer of the Year at the 2022 XXL Awards. She received nominations for eight awards at the 64th Annual Grammy Awards, the most for any female artist. "Kiss Me More" won the award for Best Pop Duo Performance, while her other nominations included Album of the Year (Planet Her and Montero), Record of the Year ("Kiss Me More"), Song of the Year ("Kiss Me More"), Best Pop Vocal Album (Planet Her), Best Rap Song ("Best Friend") and Best Melodic Rap Performance ("Need to Know").

In February 2022, Doja Cat released a cover of the song "Celebrity Skin" by American rock band Hole, as part of a Taco Bell commercial in which she starred, and premiered it at the Super Bowl LVI. The cover contains reworked lyrics written by Doja Cat and Hole frontwoman Courtney Love. Later that month, her second collaboration with Tyga, entitled "Freaky Deaky", was released as a single alongside a music video directed by Christian Breslauer. She contributed to the soundtrack for Baz Luhrmann's biographical film Elvis (2022) with the song "Vegas", released on May 6, 2022, as its lead single. In June 2022, the track "I Like You (A Happier Song)" by Post Malone featuring Doja Cat was released as the third single from the former's fourth studio album, Twelve Carat Toothache (2023). The track would later earn Doja Cat a nomination for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance at the 65th Annual Grammy Awards, where she also earned nominations for Record of the Year ("Woman"), Best Pop Solo Performance ("Woman"), Best Music Video ("Woman"), and Best Rap Performance ("Vegas"). Doja Cat was made the subject and namesake of the song "Doja" by British rapper Central Cee, which was released in July 2022 and achieved global success, becoming the most streamed UK rap song on Spotify.

Doja Cat later began sharing her experiences of career burnout, expressing her disdain for "unnecessary" obligations, while admitting that she was no longer enjoying her career. Doja Cat continued to publicise her frustrations during a South American festival tour in March 2022.

2023–present: Scarlet

Doja Cat adopted a more experimental image ahead of Scarlet's release.

In early 2023, Doja Cat began teasing her fourth studio album with the working title of Hellmouth. Prior to this, she had asserted that the album would be "predominantly rap", a callback to the musical style of her earliest works, and an effort to diverge from the "pink and soft things" and "pop and glittery sounds" that she has become noted for, notably denouncing her previous two albums as "cash grabs" and "digestible pop hits". She also adopted a darker aesthetic and appearance, which she described as "punk". In mid-June 2023, she released the album's first promotional single, titled "Attention", alongside an accompanying music video directed by Tanu Muino. The album's lead single, "Paint the Town Red", was released in early August 2023 to commercial success, breaking a number of streaming records, and becoming her first solo song to top the charts in both the United States and the United Kingdom, among several other countries and the Billboard Global 200 chart. The album's title was later revealed to be Scarlet in mid-August 2023. The second promotional single, "Demons", was released in early September 2023, alongside a music video directed by Christian Breslauer and co-starring American actress Christina Ricci. Scarlet was released to mostly positive reviews on September 22, 2023, and debuted within the top 5 in the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada. Doja Cat then embarked the opening North American leg of her first arena tour, The Scarlet Tour, featuring rappers Doechii and Ice Spice as supporting acts.

A deluxe edition of the album, Scarlet 2 Claude, was released on April 5, 2024 and was named after the Claude Frollo character from The Hunchback of Notre Dame. The deluxe edition features collaborations from American rappers ASAP Rocky and Teezo Touchdown.

Artistry

Influences

Doja Cat names Nicki Minaj (pictured) as her biggest influence.

Doja Cat has cited Nicki Minaj as her biggest influence. In a Billboard interview, Doja Cat stated that she is "in love with everything Nicki Minaj has put out into the world." On the song "Get Into It (Yuh)" from her third studio album, Planet Her (2021), she pays tribute to Minaj and borrows lyrics and rap delivery from her debut 2010 single "Massive Attack". Critics noted that the album as whole was largely influenced by Minaj herself with The New Yorker noting that she "build[s] upon the pop-rap legacy established by her predecessor Nicki Minaj". She has also named Lauryn Hill and Busta Rhymes as some of her biggest influences. While speaking about Busta Rhymes, she stated: "if I hear a beat Busta Rhymes would absolutely kill, I'll use my voice to do a flow similar to his."

Additionally, Doja Cat has cited Rihanna, Beyoncé, D'Angelo, Missy Elliott, and Christina Aguilera among her major influences. She draws inspiration from her background engaging in online activities and delving into sub-cultures as a suburban teenager, as well as the artists her mother exposed to her as a child such as Fugees, Erykah Badu, Jamiroquai, Earth, Wind & Fire, Black Eyed Peas, Tupac, Aaliyah, DMX, India Arie and TLC. The Hindu culture of her childhood as well as Japanese culture have also been noted as sources of inspiration for Purrr! (2014) and other aspects of her early career. In an interview with Big Boy, she stated her admiration for Janet Jackson and Prince.

Doja Cat at the Met Gala in 2023

Musical style and themes

Doja Cat's music has been described as hip hop, pop, R&B, and pop rap. When asked about her legacy, Doja Cat revealed that in future she would like to be remembered for her versatility in not only music but also visual art and dance. Her second full-length studio album, Hot Pink, is built with her own beats as well as a series of videos written and conceived by herself. She claimed the era was a firm restart for her career, and the most "refined, chiseled" representation of herself. Her escapist fantasy worldview is reflected in the music by its upbeat production style.

Personal life

Doja Cat is reported to be "eager to deflect interest in her personal life." She lived in a home in Beverly Hills, California, which she bought in 2021 for $2.2 million and sold in September 2022 for $2.5 million.

She was in a brief relationship with American musician Jawny from August 2019 until separating in February 2020. In June 2020, Doja Cat donated $100,000 to the Justice for Breonna Taylor Fund, in support of Taylor's family.

She is dating actor Joseph Quinn as of August 2024.

Discography

• Amala (2018)
• Hot Pink (2019)
• Planet Her (2021)
• Scarlet (2023)

Filmography

Television

Video games

Awards and nominations

Doja Cat has received many accolades throughout her career, including one Grammy Award, five Billboard Music Awards, five American Music Awards (AMAs), five MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs), and six iHeartRadio Music Awards (including four Titanium Awards for 1 BILLION total audience spins).

On January 27, 2024, Doja Cat's single "Paint the Town Red" was listed #1 in Australian radio station Triple J's (JJJ) listener poll for the annual Hottest 100 competition (100 most popular songs of 2023).

Tours

Headlining

• Amala Tour (2018–2019)
• The Scarlet Tour (2023–2024)

Supporting

• Theophilus London – Vibes Tour (2015)
• Lizzo – Good as Hell Tour (2017)

See also

In Spanish: Doja Cat para niños

• List of Zulu people
• List of Los Angeles rappers
• List of artists who reached number one in the United States
• List of Billboard Hot 100 number ones of 2020
• List of most-streamed artists on Spotify