Amala Ratna Zandile Dlamini, known to the world as Doja Cat (born October 21, 1995), is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, and producer who turned a viral cow meme into one of the most unpredictable pop-rap careers of the 2020s. She raps with technical sharpness, sings with genuine range, dances like she trained for it (she did), and produces her own tracks, a combination that makes her genuinely difficult to categorize and nearly impossible to ignore. Billboard has called her “one of the defining pop stars of this era,” and the numbers support the claim: over 36 billion worldwide streams, 64.5 million RIAA-certified units in the U.S. alone, and a discography that pivots from bubbly pop to hard-nosed rap to ’80s funk without ever losing the thread.
Her career arc reads like a stress test for genre boundaries. After a debut album that almost nobody heard, she went viral with “Mooo!”, a self-produced novelty song about being a cow, then parlayed that absurdist moment into Hot Pink, Planet Her, Scarlet, and most recently Vie, each one occupying a different sonic lane. Along the way she delivered two Billboard Hot 100 number ones (“Say So,” “Paint the Town Red”), won a Grammy for “Kiss Me More” with SZA, headlined Coachella, and was named one of TIME’s 100 Most Influential People. She is, by Billboard’s 2024 reckoning, the second-biggest female rapper of the 21st century.
What makes Doja Cat singular isn’t just range, it’s the way she treats genre as a costume she can put on and take off. Scarlet was a deliberate rejection of the pop machine, a rap record built on anger and self-defense. Vie, released barely two years later, swings the pendulum back toward plush ’80s pop with Jack Antonoff at the boards. The constant through all of it is a restless creative intelligence and an internet-native instinct for knowing exactly when to zig.
People also read: Megan Thee Stallion (Savage), SZA (SOS), Nicki Minaj (Pink Friday 2), Ice Spice (Y2K!)
Quick Facts
| Real Name: | Amala Ratna Zandile Dlamini |
| Stage Name: | Doja Cat |
| Profession: | Rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer |
| Born: | October 21, 1995 |
| Age: | 30 (as of 2026) |
| Birthplace: | Tarzana, Los Angeles, California, United States |
| Nationality: | American |
| Genre(s): | Pop, hip-hop, R&B, pop-rap, funk, dance-pop |
| Known For: | Genre-bending albums, viral internet moments, the Grammy-winning “Kiss Me More,” and a performing style that blends rap, singing, and dance |
| Notable Albums: | Hot Pink; Planet Her; Scarlet; Vie |
| Awards: | 1 Grammy Award, 6 Billboard Music Awards, 5 American Music Awards, 6 MTV VMAs, 19 Grammy nominations total |
| Record Label(s): | Kemosabe Records, RCA Records |
| Zodiac Sign: | Libra |
| Relationship: | Private |
| Years Active: | 2014 to present |
Featured Video
Video courtesy of Doja Cat’s official YouTube channel.
Early Life & Education
Doja Cat was born Amala Ratna Zandile Dlamini in the Tarzana neighborhood of Los Angeles. Her mother, Deborah Elizabeth Sawyer, is a Jewish-American painter; her father, Dumisani Dlamini, is a South African actor of Zulu heritage best known for his role in the 1992 musical film Sarafina! Doja has stated publicly that she never met her father growing up, though he has disputed that characterization. After spending her first five years in Rye, New York, she returned to the Los Angeles suburbs with her mother, growing up in Oak Park.
Music wasn’t the only creative outlet in the household, her mother painted, and Doja gravitated early toward dance, studying ballet, tap, and jazz as a kid, then picking up breakdancing and joining a crew in high school. She taught herself to sing, rap, and produce using GarageBand while spending long hours online, absorbing internet subcultures and downloading beats from YouTube. She describes this period bluntly: sleeping on the floor, no job, making music all day and night. By late 2012, she had uploaded “So High” to SoundCloud, which caught the ear of Dr. Luke, who signed her to Kemosabe Records and RCA at the age of seventeen.
She never finished traditional schooling. The combination of early label interest and what she describes as a “messy” post-dropout period meant that formal education gave way entirely to music. The stage name came from two sources: “doja,” slang for marijuana (she has spoken openly about her past heavy use), and “cat,” one of her actual pets. It’s the kind of origin story that could only belong to someone who grew up extremely online.
Career Highlights and Milestones
Doja Cat’s career didn’t arrive in a straight line. Her debut EP, Purrr! (2014), landed quietly. Her first studio album, Amala (2018), was largely ignored by critics and audiences, she has since called it unfinished and rushed. The real breakout came from the margins: in August 2018, she self-published a homemade music video for “Mooo!”, a novelty track in which she raps about being a cow over a beat she produced herself. It went viral as an internet meme, racking up millions of views in days, and suddenly the industry that had barely noticed Amala was paying close attention.
She converted that attention into Hot Pink (2019), which reached the top ten of the Billboard 200 and produced “Say So”, a disco-tinged track that blew up on TikTok and, after a remix with Nicki Minaj, became her first Hot 100 number one. From there the escalation was swift. Planet Her (2021) was a full-scale pop-rap blockbuster: it spent 41 weeks in the Billboard 200’s top ten, became the tenth best-selling album globally that year, and generated four top-ten singles including the Grammy-winning “Kiss Me More” with SZA. She became the first rapper to place three songs simultaneously in the top ten at Top 40 radio and the first woman to have four number-one hits from a single album on the Billboard Rhythmic Airplay chart.
Then she pivoted hard. After publicly expressing burnout and frustration with making “palatable, marketable” pop music, Doja scrapped the expected Planet Her follow-up and delivered Scarlet (2023), a hip-hop-forward record built on anger and self-assertion. Its lead single “Paint the Town Red” became her second solo Hot 100 number one and the first rap song to top the chart that year. She followed it with a 31-show North American arena tour, her first, grossing $46 million. In 2025, the pendulum swung again: Vie, her fifth album, returned to pop with an ’80s-inflected, Jack Antonoff–produced sound, recorded at Miraval Studios in the south of France. It debuted at number four on the Billboard 200, and she launched the Tour Ma Vie World Tour, her most ambitious global run to date, spanning six continents through 2026.
Selected discography and music highlights
- Purrr! (EP, 2014)
- Amala (2018)
- “Mooo!” (viral single, 2018)
- Hot Pink (2019)
- “Say So” feat. Nicki Minaj (Hot 100 #1, 2020)
- Planet Her (2021)
- “Kiss Me More” feat. SZA (Grammy winner, 2021)
- “Need to Know” (2021)
- “Woman” (2021)
- Scarlet (2023)
- “Paint the Town Red” (Hot 100 #1, 2023)
- “Agora Hills” (2023)
- Scarlet 2 Claude (deluxe, 2024)
- Vie (2025)
- “Jealous Type” (2025)
Major recognition
- Grammy Award for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance (“Kiss Me More” with SZA, 2022)
- 19 Grammy nominations across five ceremonies (2021–2023)
- Billboard’s #2 Female Rapper of the 21st Century and #24 Top Woman Artist (2024)
- TIME100 Most Influential People (2023), with cover and gala performance
- 6 MTV Video Music Awards, including Best New Artist (2020)
- 5 American Music Awards, 6 Billboard Music Awards
- Billboard Powerhouse Award at Women in Music (2022)
- First female rap duo to top the Hot 100 (with Nicki Minaj, “Say So,” 2020)
- First rapper with three simultaneous top-10 songs at Top 40 radio (2021)
- Over 64.5 million RIAA-certified units in the U.S. as a lead artist
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Awards and Accolades
| Year | Award | Category | Work | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Grammy Awards | Best New Artist | Career | Nominated |
| 2021 | Grammy Awards | Record of the Year | “Say So” | Nominated |
| 2021 | Grammy Awards | Best Pop Solo Performance | “Say So” | Nominated |
| 2022 | Grammy Awards | Album of the Year | Planet Her | Nominated |
| 2022 | Grammy Awards | Record of the Year | “Kiss Me More” | Nominated |
| 2022 | Grammy Awards | Best Pop Duo/Group Performance | “Kiss Me More” (with SZA) | Won |
| 2022 | Grammy Awards | Best Pop Vocal Album | Planet Her | Nominated |
| 2023 | Grammy Awards | Record of the Year | “Woman” | Nominated |
| 2023 | Grammy Awards | Best Rap Performance | “Vegas” | Nominated |
| 2020 | MTV VMAs | Push Best New Artist | Career | Won |
| 2021 | MTV VMAs | Best Art Direction | “Best Friend” (with Saweetie) | Won |
| 2023 | TIME Magazine | TIME100 Most Influential People | Career | Honored |
| 2022 | Billboard | Women in Music Powerhouse Award | Career | Honored |
Discography / Notable Works
| Year | Title | Type | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | Purrr! | EP | Debut release. Spacey, Eastern-influenced R&B. Introduced “So High.” |
| 2018 | Amala | Studio Album | Critically ignored debut LP. Doja has since disowned much of it as unfinished. |
| 2018 | “Mooo!” | Single | Self-produced viral novelty hit. Launched her into mainstream consciousness. |
| 2019 | Hot Pink | Studio Album | Breakout record. Top 10 on Billboard 200. Home of “Say So” and “Juicy.” 7 billion streams worldwide. |
| 2021 | Planet Her | Studio Album | Pop-rap blockbuster. 41 weeks in the Billboard 200 top 10. Four top-ten singles including “Kiss Me More.” |
| 2023 | Scarlet | Studio Album | Deliberate hip-hop pivot. “Paint the Town Red” hit #1. RIAA certified platinum. |
| 2024 | Scarlet 2 Claude | Deluxe Edition | Expanded Scarlet with new tracks and features from A$AP Rocky and Teezo Touchdown. |
| 2025 | Vie | Studio Album | ’80s-influenced pop return. Jack Antonoff–produced. Recorded at Miraval Studios in France. Debuted at #4 on Billboard 200. |
Touring History / Major Tours
| Year(s) | Tour Name | Scale | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Amala Tour | Club/theater tour | First headlining tour in support of debut album. Small-venue circuit. |
| 2022 | Festival circuit | Festival headliner | Scheduled to open for The Weeknd’s After Hours til Dawn Tour; withdrew due to tonsil surgery. Performed at multiple festivals. |
| 2023–2024 | The Scarlet Tour | Arena tour | First arena headlining tour. 31 North American shows. Grossed $46 million. Support from Ice Spice and Doechii. European festival dates in summer 2024. |
| 2024 | Coachella 2024 | Festival headliner | Headlined the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in April 2024. Career-defining festival moment. |
| 2025–2026 | Tour Ma Vie World Tour | Global arena tour | Biggest tour to date. Spanning Oceania, Asia, Latin America, Europe, and North America. Culminates at Madison Square Garden, December 1, 2026. |
Net Worth, Income, & Lifestyle
| Net Worth (2026) | Public estimates vary widely. Doja Cat has not disclosed a verified net worth figure. Treat numbers found online as unconfirmed. |
| Income Sources | Recorded music sales and streaming royalties, touring and live performance revenue, songwriting and production credits, brand partnerships (Marc Jacobs, Pepsi, Taco Bell), merchandise sales, and sync placements. |
| Business & Ventures | Brand ambassador for fashion houses and beauty brands. Fortnite collaboration in 2025 (playable character, voice work, original music). Airbnb Icons program partnership (2024). No publicly known standalone business entity or label imprint. |
| Properties & Assets | Most detailed financial and property information is kept private. Reliable public documentation is limited. |
| Lifestyle | Known for an eccentric, internet-native personality that blurs the line between performance and real life. Candid about therapy, past nicotine addiction, and complicated relationship with social media and fame. Has described herself as intensely private beneath the public persona. |
Social Media & Online Presence
| Official account: @dojacat (verified). Approximately 25 million followers. Known for periodically deactivating or wiping her page. | |
| X (Twitter) | Official account: @DojaCat (verified). Highly active and often unfiltered; uses the platform for album teasers, fan interaction, and candid commentary. |
| TikTok | Official account: @dojacat (verified). Major presence on the platform; multiple songs have gone viral via TikTok trends. |
| Official page: Doja Cat (verified). | |
| YouTube / Vevo | Official channel: Doja Cat. Multiple videos with hundreds of millions of views. Home of her iconic music videos. |
| Spotify | Artist profile: Doja Cat. Consistently among the most-streamed female rappers globally. Over 36 billion cumulative streams. |
| Apple Music | Artist profile: Doja Cat. |
| SoundCloud | amalaofficial. Where her career began; early uploads including “So High” still accessible. |
| Official Website | dojacat.com — tour dates, merch, music, and official news. |
Fan communities on social media (unofficial)
NOTE: In addition to any official accounts listed above, many fan-run pages, update accounts, and clip accounts exist across all platforms. These are not confirmed to be affiliated with Doja Cat. Links and usernames can change at any time.
Trivia & Lesser-Known Facts
- Her stage name comes from two sources: “doja,” a slang term for marijuana (she was, by her own account, “heavily addicted to weed” when she started rapping), and “cat,” one of her actual pets.
- She taught herself to sing, rap, and produce music using GarageBand while spending long hours browsing the internet as a teenager with no job. She credits internet culture — not formal training — as her real education.
- She studied ballet for most of her childhood and joined a breakdancing crew in high school. Her dance training is visible in her live performances, where she choreographs alongside backup dancers.
- She was signed to Kemosabe Records at 17 after Dr. Luke discovered her “So High” upload on SoundCloud, making her one of the youngest artists on the label’s roster at the time.
- She is an avid Fortnite player and has spoken about her addiction to the game publicly. In 2025, she became a playable character in the Fortnitemares event, providing voice work and original music for the collaboration.
- The deluxe edition of Scarlet is titled Scarlet 2 Claude, named after the character Claude Frollo from The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
Quotes
“If your only intent is to be seen, you’ll never be seen. If your intent is to be happy, comfortable, genuine, and true in craft, you’re destined to be noticed.”
— Doja Cat, quoted by American Songwriter
“Scarlet is a very, to put it simply, quite an angry project. I think the point of that album was to showcase anger and how it processes through my mind, but also it’s about coming to your own defense and love.”
— Doja Cat, interview with Jack Harlow for Present Space (September 2024)
“This album really grew from my sessions in therapy and being so gung-ho on being there twice a week and learning about the human experience and how our brains function subconsciously and consciously.”
— Doja Cat, Apple Music interview with Zane Lowe (August 2025), discussing Vie
“I think that creativity is love.”
— Doja Cat, Apple Music interview with Zane Lowe (August 2025)
“I really pull from everyone. I’m absorbent.”
— Doja Cat, quoted by BrainyQuote
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Q: What is Doja Cat’s age?
A: She was born on October 21, 1995. She is 30 years old as of 2026.
Q: What is Doja Cat best known for?
A: She is known for genre-bending music that spans pop, rap, R&B, and funk, viral internet moments like “Mooo!” and “Say So,” and a performing style that combines rapping, singing, and dancing at a high level.
Q: Has Doja Cat won a Grammy?
A: Yes. She won Best Pop Duo/Group Performance at the 2022 Grammys for “Kiss Me More” with SZA. She has received 19 Grammy nominations total through 2023.
Q: What is Doja Cat’s real name?
A: Amala Ratna Zandile Dlamini. She was born in Tarzana, Los Angeles, to a South African father and Jewish-American mother.
Q: What genre is Doja Cat?
A: Her music spans pop, hip-hop, R&B, funk, dance-pop, and pop-rap. She is known for shifting genres between albums — from the pop of Planet Her to the rap focus of Scarlet to the ’80s-influenced funk-pop of Vie.
Q: What are Doja Cat’s official social accounts?
A: Her verified accounts include Instagram and TikTok @dojacat, X @DojaCat, and her official website dojacat.com.
Q: Is Doja Cat currently touring?
A: Yes. The Tour Ma Vie World Tour launched in November 2025, covering Oceania and Asia, with Latin American, European, and North American legs running through December 2026. The tour concludes at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
Upcoming Projects
- Tour Ma Vie World Tour — Latin America (February 2026) — Dates in São Paulo, Buenos Aires, Santiago, Lima, Bogotá, and Mexico City.
- Tour Ma Vie World Tour — Europe/UK (May–June 2026) — Arena dates across Dublin, Glasgow, Manchester, London, Lisbon, Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin, and more.
- Tour Ma Vie World Tour — North America (October–December 2026) — Extensive arena tour across the U.S. and Canada, culminating at Madison Square Garden on December 1. Tickets on sale.
- Move Afrika tour dates (2026) — In February 2026, Global Citizen and Doja Cat announced Africa dates as part of the Move Afrika initiative. Details are still developing.
- 2027 Grammy eligibility — Vie and its singles (“Jealous Type,” “Gorgeous,” “Stranger”) were released after the 2026 Grammy eligibility cutoff. Grammy submissions for the 2027 cycle are expected. Treat all awards speculation as subject to change.
Interviews & Features
- Billboard, “Doja Cat Talks Why ‘Scarlet’ Is an ‘Angry Project’ With Jack Harlow” (September 2024), a candid conversation about creative anger, social media boundaries, and making music on her own terms.
- Apple Music, Doja Cat on “Jealous Type,” the ’80s, and New Album Vie with Zane Lowe (August 2025), a deep dive into the making of Vie, therapy as creative fuel, and working with Jack Antonoff.
- The FADER, “Doja Cat’s New Album Vie” (August 2025), coverage of the Vie rollout, V Magazine quotes on ’80s influences, and the pop pivot after Scarlet.
- TIME, “The 100 Most Influential People: Doja Cat” (April 2023), the cover profile honoring her cultural impact, artistic range, and role in reshaping pop-rap.
- Hypebeast, “Doja Cat ‘Fortnitemares’ 2025 Interview” (October 2025), discussing her real Fortnite fandom, the Mother of Thorns character, and blending gaming with music.
Public Appearances, Tours, & Festivals
- 2025 MTV Video Music Awards (September 2025): Doja Cat performed “Jealous Type” at the VMAs in New York, featuring a live appearance by saxophonist Kenny G. The retro-pop performance channeled Madonna and Michael Jackson.
- Coachella 2024 (April 2024): Doja Cat headlined the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio, California, delivering a career-spanning set during the Scarlet era.
- Outside Lands 2025 (August 2025): Headlined the festival in San Francisco, debuting “Jealous Type” live for the first time ahead of the Vie album cycle.
- 2025 Met Gala (May 2025): Attended the Metropolitan Museum of Art gala in New York City, confirming the “Jealous Type” single during red carpet interviews.
- Tour Ma Vie World Tour launch (November 2025): Opened the global tour in Auckland, New Zealand, marking her first-ever headlining arena shows in Oceania.
