Pop sensation Doja Cat has clawed her way into the hearts of millions. Well-known for her impressive dance moves and musical versatility, the rapper and singer-songwriter has brought a new sound to the current generation of music. She is also known for her quirky, unfiltered personality as well as her interactions with fans. However, Doja Cat has recently been coming off a little too personal for her fans’ liking. After upsetting fans in Paraguay, which ultimately resulted in her threatening to leave the industry, fans pleaded with Doja Cat to reconsider.
In August 2018, Doja Cat became a viral sensation after releasing her home-produced music video “Mooo!” In the video, Doja Cat sings about being a cow while she is dressed as one. After the video became an internet meme, she released her debut album, “Amala,” titled after her legal name, Amala Ratna Zandile Dlamini. To be transparent with fans, Doja Cat revealed that the album would sound “unfinished” due to the rushed production and the fact that she was high during most of the recordings. She also has referenced marijuana before regarding her work and stated how it influenced her stage name.
Following her first and second albums, Doja Cat went viral once again when her song “Say So” became popular on TikTok, well after it first appeared on the album “Hot Pink.” The choreography from the “Say So” music video became one of the most popular TikTok dances of 2020, and Doja Cat even incorporated the moves into her live performances. As her career skyrocketed due to the internet exposure, she began collaborating with other successful artists such as Ariana Grande, Nicki Minaj and Tyga. Doja Cat was quickly rising and released her third studio album in June 2021. However, as Doja Cat’s fame rose, so did the pressure of the media and her production company.
Doja Cat posted a TikTok on March 8 where she warns her fans about her upcoming Taco Bell advertisement. She divulges to her followers that she didn’t want to do a rap advertising the Mexican Pizza menu item but she was required to; she says she knows that it’ll come out bad and asks her fans not to blame her when it does. “I just wanna give you a heads up before you see that s—. Just know it’s contractual,” she says to fans while whispering to the camera, “I know it’s bad.”
https://www.tiktok.com/@dojacat/video/7072796826788711723?_r=1&_t=8RSaiZMQwnu&social_sharing=v3
The following day, Doja Cat released the jingle — despite banning her team from using the word “jingle” — and rapped about her love of the discontinued menu item sounding as if she was reading from a script. Fans were skeptical about the advertisement and debated whether the warning message was really part of the publicity. Some fans believe that it’s simply Doja Cat being her usual unfiltered self and expressing her dislike for the project. While neither Taco Bell nor Doja Cat have addressed the controversy, it remains clear that Doja Cat appears uncomfortable with the advertisement in general.
As Doja Cat became more comfortable with her fans, she also became more comfortable expressing what she dislikes about her career. She did an Instagram live in November 2021 where she tells fans that she had a lot of plans she wanted to pursue but had other obligations. She opens up further by saying how she wished she had time for more passion projects and time to relax. Fans took this as a negative response to her career choice.
Less than a month later, Doja Cat took to Instagram live to address the rumors circulating that she hated her career. She reveals: “I want you guys to know that’s literally all that I meant that that was. It doesn’t mean that I hate my f—ing life. That’s not what I meant. I’m definitely not depressed. I’m more unhappy with the fact that everybody is coming up with their own ‘woe is me’ story.” She becomes defensive and tells fans that her annoyance over an interview doesn’t mean she’s depressed and they shouldn’t be trying to diagnose her. Doja Cat continues by saying that she’s doing the thing she loves and is getting paid for it, which is “f—ing amazing.”
Nonetheless, Doja Cat’s love for her career seemed to quickly fade after a canceled show in Paraguay. Due to a deadly storm warning on March 24, Doja Cat’s concert was shut down, and fans were outraged over the lack of communication following the cancellation. What sparked fans’ anger even further was the excitement Doja Cat expressed on Twitter for her following show in Brazil. This caused many of her fans to lash out at her on the social media platform; one of her fans, @chelo_villalba, tweeted: “Bless your heart … your show in Paraguay didn’t get cancelled, you were.” In his tweet, he included screenshots of Doja Cat’s deleted tweets from the incident. In one of the deleted tweets, she writes: “There was a storm in Paraguay, the show got cancelled. When I left the next morning there wasn’t one person outside the hotel waiting for me. Let that sink in.” In response, another user @09d0d0 wrote how they spent the whole day outside her hotel in the rain waiting for her and she never said a word to them. Doja Cat responded: “I regret spending all the time I did getting ready that day for the show ive been busting my ass every day to put on for you but god bless.” More users began to attack Doja Cat for the way she responded to her fans in Paraguay, calling her insensitive, and soon she tweeted: “This s— ain’t for me so I’m out. Y’all take care.”
Bless your heart… your show in Paraguay didn’t get cancelled, you were. pic.twitter.com/nXNdQoTeYw
— M (@chelo_villalba) March 25, 2022
In now-deleted tweets, Doja Cat said that she’s not sorry to the people of Paraguay and that she’s moved on and is going to just let everyone be mad. She also stated that she’s not going to be taking any pictures with fans from this point forward on tour. She showed her true anger toward her fans when she tweeted: “its gone and i dont give a f— anymore i f—ing quit i cant wait to disappear and i don’t need you to believe in me anymore. Everything is dead to me, music is dead, and im a f—ing fool for ever thinking i was made for this f—ing nightmare unfollow me.” She later explained in another tweet that she will finish out her tour, but after that, she is finished.
To make matters even more complicated, Doja Cat broke into tears while accepting her first Grammy on April 3, saying how much it meant to her. Following the award show, she thanked her fans further on Twitter and deleted the tweets regarding her quitting music.
Doja Cat hasn’t publicly stated whether she will continue her career or will ultimately quit once her tour is over. Considering the happiness she felt for her Grammy win and the deletion of her tweets threatening to quit music, it’s safe to say that there is still hope for more Doja Cat music in the future and hopefully more tours and awards as well.
