Doja Cat

Doja Cat Bio

Amala Ratna Zandile Dlamini (born October 21, 1995), known professionally as Doja Cat, is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, and record producer. Born in Tarzana, Los Angeles, she rose from teenage SoundCloud uploads to become one of the defining pop stars of the 2020s, recognized for her genre-blending catalog and her theatrical, visually driven live performances. She is regarded as a leading figure in pop-rap and has been listed by Time among the 100 most influential people in the world.

Doja Cat first drew mainstream attention with her 2018 viral single “Mooo!” and broke through commercially with her second album Hot Pink (2019) and its number-one single “Say So.” Her subsequent albums Planet Her (2021) and Scarlet (2023) produced global hits including “Kiss Me More” and “Paint the Town Red,” cementing her status as a chart-dominant force.

Early Life and Background

Amala Ratna Zandile Dlamini was born on October 21, 1995, in the Tarzana neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. Her mother, Deborah Sawyer, is an American graphic designer of Jewish heritage, and her father, Dumisani Dlamini, is a South African performer of Zulu descent best known for starring in the original Broadway cast and 1992 film of the musical Sarafina!. Shortly after her birth, she moved to Rye, New York, where she lived for five years with her maternal grandmother, an architect and painter.

At the age of eight, she returned to California with her mother and brother to live at the Sai Anantam Ashram, a commune in Agoura Hills whose spiritual director was jazz musician Alice Coltrane. The family practiced Hinduism for four years, during which Dlamini sang bhajans and wore head-covering scarves. Her family then relocated to Oak Park, California, where she took dance lessons, skateboarded, and visited Malibu for surf camps, and where she and her brother were among the only mixed-race children in the area.

As she grew older, she attended breakdancing classes and joined a professional pop-locking troupe, competing in dance battles across Los Angeles. Her aunt, a vocal coach, gave her singing lessons that helped her audition for Central Los Angeles Area New High School No. 9, a performing arts high school. She eventually dropped out at age 16, citing struggles with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and later revealed that she has three additional half-siblings on her mother’s side.

Path to Singing

After leaving high school, Doja Cat taught herself to sing, rap, and produce using GarageBand, downloading beats from YouTube and uploading tracks to SoundCloud. Her late-2012 track “So High” was her first permanent upload and caught the attention of producer Yeti Beats, who invited her to record at his Echo Park studio. Yeti Beats then connected her with Kemosabe Records, an imprint of RCA Records, where she signed a deal at 17 under executive Dr. Luke, along with a temporary management partnership with Roc Nation.

Her 2014 debut EP Purrr! was described as spacey, Eastern-influenced R&B, and “So High” was later featured on the Fox series Empire. She temporarily signed to OG Maco’s label OGG in 2015 and collaborated with him on “Monster.” After a period of writer’s block and a creative hiatus influenced by personal challenges, she returned with the single “Roll with Us” in early 2018, followed by “Go to Town” and “Candy” ahead of her debut studio album.

Doja Cat released her debut studio album Amala on March 30, 2018, through Kemosabe and RCA Records. The release was largely uneventful and failed to chart, but her self-made 2018 single “Mooo!” went viral as an internet meme, surpassing three million views in its first week. The success of “Mooo!” is widely credited with convincing her labels to invest more heavily in her career.

Doja Cat Career

Early Career (2012-2018)

Doja Cat began releasing music on SoundCloud in 2012 and signed with Kemosabe and RCA Records as a teenager. Her 2014 debut EP Purrr! introduced her spacey, Eastern-influenced sound and led to a placement on the Fox television series Empire. A period of writer’s block followed, during which she stepped back from public releases.

Her 2018 debut studio album Amala was released with little label support and failed to chart in any market. Later that year, the homemade music video for “Mooo!” turned her into a viral internet phenomenon, with the single eventually released as the lead track from the deluxe edition of Amala in 2019.

Breakthrough (2019-2020)

The Tyga-assisted remix of “Juicy” from the deluxe Amala became her first Billboard Hot 100 entry, peaking at number 41 and earning a platinum RIAA certification. Her second studio album Hot Pink arrived on November 7, 2019, eventually reaching number 9 on the Billboard 200. Its single “Say So” became a TikTok-driven hit, peaked at number 5 on the Hot 100, and, following a remix with Nicki Minaj in May 2020, became her first number-one single and the first female rap collaboration to top the chart.

Throughout 2020, Doja Cat expanded her reach with featured appearances on tracks including Ariana Grande’s “Motive,” The Weeknd’s “In Your Eyes,” and Lil Wayne’s “Shimmy.” She won Push Best New Artist at the 2020 MTV Video Music Awards, performed a metal rendition of “Say So” at the MTV Europe Music Awards where she also won Best New Act, and collected New Artist of the Year and Favorite Soul/R&B Female Artist at the American Music Awards. Rolling Stone named her the biggest breakthrough artist of 2020, and Forbes included her on its 30 Under 30 list.

Continued Success with Planet Her (2021)

Doja Cat’s third studio album Planet Her was released in 2021 to generally positive reviews and opened at number 2 on the Billboard 200, spending 41 weeks in the chart’s top 10. The lead single “Kiss Me More” with SZA spent 19 consecutive weeks in the top 10 of the Hot 100, a record for a female collaboration, and peaked at number 3. Follow-up singles “Need to Know,” “You Right” with the Weeknd, and “Woman” all reached the top 10.

Planet Her topped the year-end IFPI global album chart at number 10 in 2021 and number 13 in 2022, and was the sixth best-selling album in the US for 2021. Doja Cat hosted the 2021 MTV Video Music Awards, winning Best Collaboration and Best Art Direction, and received eight nominations at the 64th Annual Grammy Awards, the most for any female artist that year, with “Kiss Me More” winning Best Pop Duo Performance.

Scarlet and Stylistic Shift (2022-2024)

Doja Cat contributed “Vegas” to Baz Luhrmann’s 2022 film Elvis and earned five nominations at the 65th Annual Grammy Awards. Her fourth studio album Scarlet, released on September 22, 2023, marked a return to a hip-hop-oriented sound and debuted in the top 5 in the US, UK, and Canada. Lead single “Paint the Town Red” became her first solo number-one on both the US Billboard Hot 100 and the UK Singles Chart, and was the first rap song to top the Billboard Global Excl. U.S. chart.

The deluxe edition Scarlet 2 Claude, released April 5, 2024, included collaborations with ASAP Rocky and Teezo Touchdown. Doja Cat launched the Scarlet Tour, her first arena outing, with Doechii and Ice Spice as support, and on January 27, 2024, “Paint the Town Red” was placed at number one on the Triple J Hottest 100, the first female rapper and first woman of color to top the list.

Notable Works and Milestones

Doja Cat’s signature works include Amala (2018), Hot Pink (2019), Planet Her (2021), Scarlet (2023), and Vie (2025), alongside chart-defining singles “Say So,” “Kiss Me More,” and “Paint the Town Red.” She has sold over 34 million records between 2018 and 2022 and was ranked number 24 on Billboard’s 2025 Top 100 Women Artists of the 21st Century list.

Doja Cat Award Nominations

Doja Cat has earned a substantial number of major award nominations across her career, including 19 Grammy nominations, 23 Billboard Music Award nominations, 11 American Music Award nominations, 25 MTV Video Music Award nominations, and 31 iHeartRadio Music Award nominations. Her Grammy nods span categories such as Record of the Year, Song of the Year, Album of the Year, Best New Artist, and multiple pop and rap performance fields, reflecting her range as both a vocalist and a lyricist.

Doja Cat Awards Won

Doja Cat has won one Grammy Award, six Billboard Music Awards, five American Music Awards, six MTV Video Music Awards, and eight iHeartRadio Music Awards, along with Songwriter of the Year honors at the BMI Pop Music Awards and the BMI R&B Hip-Hop Music Awards. She has also been named Push Best New Artist and Best New Act at the MTV VMAs and EMAs, New Artist of the Year at the American Music Awards, and Female Rapper of the Year and Performer of the Year at the 2022 XXL Awards.

Doja Cat Family

Doja Cat was raised primarily by her mother, Deborah Sawyer, an American graphic designer of Jewish heritage, alongside her brother. Her father, Dumisani Dlamini, is a South African performer of Zulu descent who starred as Crocodile in the original Broadway production and 1992 film adaptation of the musical Sarafina!. Doja Cat has publicly stated that she is estranged from her father, and in 2024 her mother filed for a temporary restraining order against Doja Cat’s brother, Raman Dalithando Dlamini.

Personal Life

Doja Cat has been known for keeping her personal life largely private. She was in a brief open relationship with American musician Jawny from August 2019 to February 2020. She has lived in Beverly Hills, California, having purchased a home in 2021 for $2.2 million and sold it in September 2022 for $2.5 million. She has hinted at queer themes in her music and statements without formally labeling her sexual orientation, and she has spoken openly about attending therapy sessions.