Amala Ratna Zandile Dlamini (born October 21, 1995), known professionally as Doja Cat, is an American rapper, singer and songwriter. Born and raised in Los Angeles, she began making and releasing music on SoundCloud as a teenager. Her song "So High" caught the attention of Kemosabe and RCA Records, with which she signed a joint record deal at the age of 17, subsequently releasing her debut EP Purrr! in 2014. After a hiatus from commercial music and the uneventful release 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 fantasizes about being a cow. Her second studio album, Hot Pink (2019), reached the top 10 of the US Billboard 200 and spawned the single "Say So", which topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart following the release of a remix featuring Nicki Minaj. This album was followed by Planet Her (2021), which spent three consecutive weeks at number 2 on the Billboard 200 and spawned the top 20 singles "Kiss Me More" (featuring SZA), "Need to Know" and "You Right" (with the Weeknd). Described by The Wall Street Journal as "a skilled technical rapper with a strong melodic sense and a bold visual presence",[8] Doja Cat is known for creating music videos and songs that achieve popularity on social media applications such as TikTok and YouTube. She is also well-versed in the internet herself, and is famed for her absurdly humorous personality and online presence. She has received numerous accolades throughout her career, including nominations for three Grammy Awards and six Billboard Music Awards, having won two American Music Awards in addition to the MTV Video Music Award for Push Best New Artist and its European counterpart. Amala Ratna Zandile Dlamini[13] was born on October 21, 1995,[14][15] into an artistic family in the Tarzana neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. Her mother is a Jewish-American painter. Her father, Dumisani Dlamini, is a South African actor, composer, and film producer of Zulu descent best known for starring in the 1992 musical film Sarafina!.[19] According to Doja Cat, she never met her father growing up.[20] Her father has denied this claim, stating that he has a "healthy" relationship with his daughter. Soon after her birth, Dlamini and her mother moved to New York City, where they lived for five years. Her family later moved back to California in Oak Park, where her mother enrolled her in ballet, tap and jazz lessons from the age of five. Her aunt, a singer, gave Dlamini singing lessons to help her get into a performing arts school.[23] Her family then moved near the Sherman Oaks neighborhood of Los Angeles when she was 11 years old, where they lived in an ashram in the mountains of Agoura Hills and practiced Hinduism for four years. It was here that Dlamini wore head-covering scarves and sang bhajans at temple,[1] and American jazz musician Alice Coltrane (under the Sanskrit name Turiyasangitananda) was the swami.[23] She claims that she lacked interest in school from then on, instead taking a liking for dance.[28] While at the ashram she had been dancing the style of Indian classical dance called Bharatanatyam.[23] As she grew older and moved away from the ashram, she moved onto breakdancing classes and joined a professional poplocking troupe with whom she competed in dance battles throughout Los Angeles while still attending high school.[16] She also frequently skipped school to participate in online chatrooms.[29] She eventually dropped out of high school at age 16 while in her junior year. 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.[31][32] She taught herself to sing, rap and use GarageBand while at home without a job, frequently making music and uploading it to SoundCloud.[16][32][31] She got her stage name from one of her cats as well as her favorite strain of marijuana, stating, "I was heavily addicted to weed and weed culture, so when I began rapping I thought of the word 'doja' and how it sounds like a girl's name."[16] In late 2012, "So High" became the first permanent upload on her SoundCloud account,[31] and soon caught the attention of Dr. Luke, who signed her to Kemosabe Records, RCA Records and publishing company Prescription Songs when she was aged 17.[1][33][17][34] This deal also came with a temporary artist management partnership with Roc Nation.[33] In August 2014, Doja Cat released her debut EP, Purrr!, described as "spacey, eastern-influenced R&B" by The Fader.[35] "So High" was repackaged and released as her solo commercial debut single prior to the EP's release,[17] and was later featured on the Fox series Empire in the third episode of the show's first season.[36] In mid-2015, Doja Cat signed to OG Maco's label, OGG.[37] Following the signing, in late 2016, Maco and Doja Cat collaborated on the song "Monster", from Maco's 2017 mixtape, Children of The Rage.[38] 2018–2019: Amala and "Mooo!" In February 2018, Doja Cat released the promotional single "Roll with Us". The following month, she released the single "Go to Town", which was released with an accompanying music video on the same day and would become the lead single from her debut album.[39] "Candy" was released as the album's second single that same month.[40] The track would become a sleeper hit after a "dance challenge" on the video-sharing platform TikTok went viral in late 2019.[41] Consequently, the single 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.[42] On March 30, 2018, her debut studio album Amala was released, including the three singles.[43] She later claimed to have been under the influence of marijuana for most of the production of the album.[3] NPR described the album as a "manifesto of a young woman striving to take ownership of her craft, her image and her sexuality, mixing genres like dancehall, trap, house and R&B with a healthy dose of sass and humor."[44] At the time of its release, the album was largely ignored by critics and failed to chart in any market.[44][45] The album would later peak at number 138 on the Billboard 200 in late 2019.[46] Doja Cat performing in October 2018 after the success of "Mooo!" Doja Cat performing in October 2018 after the success of "Mooo!" In August 2018, Doja Cat uploaded the completely self-produced music video for her song "Mooo!", a novelty song with absurdist lyrics in which she fantasizes about being a cow, on YouTube.[47] The video garnered attention and viral success as a meme.[48][49][50] Due to popular demand following the music video's viral success, she released a single version of "Mooo!" later that month.[51] In February 2019, she released the single and accompanying video for "Tia Tamera" featuring Rico Nasty, which preceded the release of a deluxe edition of Amala.[52] The re-release of the album included three new songs, including "Mooo!" and "Juicy".[45] A remix of "Juicy" featuring Tyga and its accompanying music video were released in August 2019, as the lead single from her second studio album. .[53] 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.[45] The song would eventually be certified Platinum in the United States.[54] It led to Amala debuting for the first time on the Billboard 200 album chart in August as well.[45] 2019–2020: Breakthrough with Hot Pink In October 2019, Doja Cat released "Bottom Bitch", the second single from her second album.[55] This was followed by the release of the single "Rules" alongside the announcement of her second studio album Hot Pink.[56] Hot Pink was released on November 7, 2019 to generally favorable reviews. The album would eventually peak at number 9 on the Billboard 200.[46] She later released the single "Boss Bitch" as part of the soundtrack for the 2020 film Birds of Prey. In January 2020, "Say So" was sent to radio to become the fourth single off of her album Hot Pink.[58] The song was originally released alongside the album in November 2019, but gained wider popularity through the video-sharing platform TikTok.[59] She performed the song on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in February 2020.[60] The next day, she released the music video for the song, directed by Hannah Lux Davis.[61] The solo version of "Say So" peaked at number five on the Hot 100, becoming her first top-ten single,[62] and was the most streamed song of 2020 by a female artist in the United States.[63] 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.[64] The remix also marked the first female collaboration since "Fancy" by Iggy Azalea featuring Charli XCX as well as the first ever female rap collaboration to peak atop the chart.[64][65] 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.[66] She was featured on a remix of Canadian singer The Weeknd's single "In Your Eyes" in May 2020,[67] as well as on the single "Shimmy" by rapper Lil Wayne from the deluxe version of his 2020 album Funeral.[68] In June, she was featured on the single "Pussy Talk" by the rap duo City Girls.[69] She released the music video for her single "Like That".[70] She also uploaded the demo song "Unisex Freestyle" to SoundCloud in late June 2020.[71] At the 20th BET Awards, Doja Cat was nominated for two awards, Best Female Hip Hop Artist and Video of the Year.[72] In August 2020, the song "Freak", which had been on SoundCloud since 2018, was officially released on digital platforms.[73] She 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".[74][75] 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.[76][77] The "Juicy" remix featuring Tyga was nominated for Top R&B Song at the 2020 Billboard Music Awards.[78] Doja Cat was featured on American singer Bebe Rexha's single "Baby, I'm Jealous", the lead single from Rexha's upcoming second studio album, in October 2020.[79] 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.[80][81] 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.[82][83] Doja Cat was featured on the album track "Motive" from Ariana Grande's 2020 album Positions,[84] which peaked at number 32 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming both her highest debut and second-ever top 40 entry.