Born in the outskirt Los Angeles neighborhood of Tarzana to a Jewish American painter mom and South African actor absentee dad, Doja moved around with her mother as a kid, with stints in New York and a California ashram before resettling in Los Angeles. And her particular brand of satire might be exactly why she hasn’t found herself alienated, even as she enters her alien era.īefore Doja Cat, there was Amala Zandile Dlamini. Though the cosmic theme isn’t really detectable beyond the lo-fi beats, Planet Her is filled with enough pluses (“Kiss Me More,” specifically) to keep the hazy vibes going all summer long.īut there’s no denying there’s an unprecedented Teflon-like quality to Doja, a pop star who spent her early years shitposting and freestyling online all while largely soldiering through controversy. Today she released Planet Her, a galactic-themed concept album featuring her most sonically traditional Top 40 tracks yet, imbued with casually catchy hooks (the Ariana Grande collab “I Don’t Do Drugs” feels like a drug), zany lyrics (“Call him Ed Sheeran, he in love with my body”) and impressive guests (The Weeknd! SZA!). Like Roxie Hart, Doja eagerly takes to the spotlight, controversy and all.

Since she got her start releasing humorous rap tracks on SoundCloud in the early 2010s, the 25-year-old star has seen the successes and pitfalls of a young career that flourished online: She’s gotten three Grammy nominations, has received backlash for using an anti-gay slur (she released three subsequent apologies after the first one was criticized), has had numerous songs become viral TikTok trends, contracted COVID-19 after mocking the virus last year, has landed three songs in the Billboard Top 10, and has dodged cancellation for being associated with disgraced producer Dr. It seemed like she wanted us to jettison our previous ideas about her and listen to what she was offering up now. But it was telling that her inspiration was a musical about provocative, misconstrued women. Sure, it made for a theatrical interpretation of her hits. It was hard not to read into Doja Cat’s impressive homage to Chicago. “Forget what you’ve seen and forget what you’ve heard because tonight I’m going to keep it real,” she said before sauntering into a medley: “Juicy,” then other recent triumphs “Say So” and “Like That,” all reimagined as a big-band stage number. As the sparkly intro to the song built, Doja spoke directly to the camera, her bedazzled silver leotard winking. On the Billboard Music Awards stage in October, Doja Cat stood in front of a Broadway sign displaying the word “Juicy,” the title of her 2019 hit single.

Kesha fuck the world tour live