We all know and love Doja Cat for her music, her incredible sense of style, and THAT Tik
Tok song ‘Say So’ we haven’t been able to get out of our heads all year.
But even as she’s skyrocketed to fame and become more and more known mainstream, there’s
still plenty of info her fans may not know about her.
So we decided to round up 9 fun facts you might not know about Doja Cat, right here
on Listed.
Let’s start with her name!
Doja Cat is actually her stage name, just in case you thought it was her real name.
Her real name is actually Amala Zandile Dlamini (apologies if I didn’t pronounce that right),
but she took on the stage name and persona of Doja when she started making music.
She told Dazed that her name choice came from one of her cats and her love of weed.
She said, "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."
And given the origin of her name, Doja has been open about her marijuana addiction and
how she was doing her best to recover.
She’s spoken openly about how quitting weed helped her with her music.
Doja told Genius quote, “I thought it’d be cool to be that person smoking so much
weed, that it was the only way to be respected.
Then I realized ‘Oh, yeah, I can just be myself.’
I’m making so much more music now.”
Alright, so let’s talk about her childhood.
(2) Before singing, Doja Cat was a dancer.
Noting that while her dad wasn’t really a part of her life growing up, he is very
musically gifted which she embraced from an early age.
Doja admitted to trying her hand in break dancing at a young age before she ever got
into singing.
She told Dazed, "My mom was a painter and loves to sing behind closed doors.
My father is a South African actor who danced in broadway musicals for Lion King.
I took a little bit of everything from both of them.
I was born in Tarzana, California, and moved immediately to the Bronx, New York for five
years and moved back to Oak Park, where I was taking ballet, tap, and jazz.”
Doja went on and said quote, “After moving from Oak Park around the age of 11 and a half,
I started to take up break dancing.
I danced in a crew and competed around Los Angeles in organised underground cypher/battles."
But it wasn’t long before she started to sing.
So yeah, like she said, in 11th grade Doja dropped out of school to pursue her career
in music.
So singing really was her very first job.
Doja explained that quote, “I dropped out and stopped dancing as much, and took up music
to see if it would stick.
Some friends in high school would tell me I should sing.
I started teaching myself to sing in my room, and would make songs on GarageBand with my
desktop computer on the floor on a mattress.”
She started recording songs and posted them on SoundCloud, which by the way is still live.
It’s URL is not under her stage name Doja Cat though, it’s called amalaofficial.
Ok now onto some of her hit songs from early on.
We can’t talk about Doja Cat without talking about her iconic song and music video Mooo!
Mooo! took the meme world by storm but the actual story behind the song is even more
interesting than some of the memes about it.
She said that her writing process happens best at night, and she told The Fader songs
sometimes can come together quickly.
(4) She’s even revealed that her hit single "Mooo!" was written and the video was made
all in 12 1/2 hours.
Yes you heard that right, an entire song and music video in less than a day.
And now a couple years later, Mooo! has around 75 million views and counting on YouTube.
It’s still one of her most viewed videos, behind Say So of course.
And let’s talk about Say So for a second.
If you’ve ever been on Tik Tok, you’ve definitely heard Doja Cat’s song Say So
and seen the now iconic dance that goes along with it.
(5) But what you might not know is that Doja had the originator of the dance in her Say
So music video.
Her name is Haley Sharpe and she’s seen in a montage of dancers at the end of the
video doing the famous Tik Tok dance.
And speaking of which, Doja herself actually does the dance in the music video too.
Alright, let’s move on to our next fact about our girl Doja Cat.
As far as we know, Doja is single at the moment.
She was recently dating Johnny Utah for around five months but after they called it quits
she went on IG live and let her fans know what happened.
She said quote, “Everything is ok.
I unfollowed my ex-boyfriend and everything is ok.
We have been cool.
Nothing weird going on.
No drama, or weird sh*t going on.
Sh*t just didn’t work out.”
And so what is she looking for in an ideal partner going forward?
(6) According to her interview with Crack Magazine...
A really big nose.
Yeah, I mean I wish there was more to say about that but that’s literally all Doja
said.
What can she say?
She loves a big nose.
Ok, next up, let’s talk about those plastic surgery rumors that almost all celebrities
face.
It’s no secret that Doja Cat is beautiful, but many of her fans have wondered if she’s
au natural or if she’s had any work done.
(7) In a 2018 interview with Vlad TV, Doja revealed that she never has and never would
get plastic surgery done.
She said quote, “There's a little things I would like to do, for sure.
I thought about getting eyelash extensions.
Little things.
I wouldn't get my lips done, I wouldn't get my nose done.”
And she’s even been shamed before for her natural body like when she shared this picture.
We think you look amazing Doja and the pic is still up on her page today a couple years
later.
So clearly Doja has no time for the body shamers out there and rightly so!
(8) Ok next up, can you guess Doja Cat’s guilty pleasure and favorite snack?
Probably not because it’s quite bizarre.
I’ll let her tell you herself…
Ok yeah, that is … interesting.
But now I kind of feel like I have to try it.
As the saying goes, don’t knock it till you try it!
(9) Alright, now onto our last, but certainly not least fact about Doja Cat.
It’s completely random and even her die hard fans might not know this.
From her name or her music you may think her favorite animal is either a cat or a cow,
but nope.
Her favorite animal actually might surprise you as much as it surprised her and her manager
when she wrote it out in an interview with All Def Music.
Yep, there you have it.
Doja’s favorite animal is a dolphin.
And honestly, it seems like dolphins would fit in perfectly with her dreamy aesthetic.
But that’s all we’ve got for ya here today.
If you want more on Doja Cat, click right over here for another Clevver video.
And let me know down in the comments if you found any of these facts surprising and feel
free to share your favorite facts about Doja.
I’m your host Sussan Mourad, bye guys!