Amala Ratna Zandile Dlamini (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",[1] 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.[2][3][4][5] 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,[6] and was included on the 100 most influential people in the world by Time in 2023.[7]
Early life and education[]
Amala Ratna Zandile Dlamini[8] was born on October 21, 1995,[9] in the Tarzana neighborhood of Los Angeles, California.[10] Her mother, Deborah Sawyer, is an American graphic designer of Jewish heritage,[11][12] and her father, Dumisani Dlamini, is a South African performer of Zulu descent,[13] best known for starring as Crocodile in the original Broadway cast of the musical Sarafina! and the 1992 film adaptation.[14][15] 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.[12] 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,[16] yet Dlamini has suggested on multiple occasions that she is estranged from her father, stating that she "never met him."[17][18][19] 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."[20][16]
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.[12][21] 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,[12] and practiced Hinduism for four years.[22][23] While living at the commune, Dlamini started wearing head-covering scarves and singing bhajans at temple,[10] yet disclosed how she felt like she could not "be a kid" during her time there.[24][22]
Her family then moved to Oak Park,[12] where she started attending dance lessons and experienced a "sporty childhood", often skateboarding and visiting Malibu for surf camps.[25][26] Dlamini and her brother were also subjected to racial prejudice as some of the only mixed-race children in the area.[12]
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.[27] 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.[26][12][28] She frequently skipped school to participate in online chatrooms.[29] After becoming discouraged abou