Amala Ratna Zandile Dlamini (born October 21, 1995) is one of the leading millennial music artists the world’s ever given birth to.
The gorgeous American is known in the showbiz business by the stage name, Doja Cat. She is a chart-topping singer, songwriter and rapper.
She became internationally known after she bagged a joint record deal with Kemosabe and RCA Records.
The deal had come because her single, So High, went viral on the internet. Her debut album, Amala, was released to critical acclaim in 2018.
Early Life
Doja Cat comes from an artistic background. Her father is a multi-talented artist. He held jobs as an actor, music composer and filmmaker; while her mother is a painter. She was born on the 21st of October 1995.
She hails from Los Angeles, California and spent her early days in the city. Her parents are Mr Dumisani Dlamini and Mrs Deborah Elizabeth Sawyer. She has South African, Jewish and American heritage.
When Doja Cat was a few months old, her mother migrated to New York City and she spent the next five years of her life in the city. Deborah introduced her daughter to the world of art at the age of five by enrolling her for ballet and jazz lessons. When she grew older, her aunt helped her secure a place in a performing arts school. This was to develop her as a singer.
When Doja Cat turned eleven, she moved back to Los Angeles, as her family took up residence in the suburban neighborhood – Sherman Oaks. For the next four years, her family practiced Hinduism. She took her dancing talent more serious and began learning new dance moves. She is a very skilled Ashram and Break-dancer. Whilst she was growing up, she didn’t have a good relationship with her father. This is because he wasn’t around to take care of her.
Education
Doja Cat completed her elementary school education in New York City and attended middle school in Los Angeles, California.
However, she dropped out of high school when she turned sixteen. This is due to the fact that she had lost interest in formal education and preferred to pursue an artistic career instead.
Career
Without a job and feeling anxious about the future, Doja Cat turned to music. She taught herself to sing and rap and downloaded instrumentals from YouTube to create her own music. After recording her singles, she usually uploaded it on SoundCloud. Her hard work didn’t go down the drain and finally paid off in 2012. Her song, So High, was discovered by Lukasz Gottwald and she was offered a record deal by Kemosabe Records and RCA Records. She happily took the deal, which came with the offer that she would be temporarily managed by ROC Nation.
To signify her entrance into industry, So High, was repackaged and released as her official debut single.Doja Cat‘s debut EP, Purrr! was released in August, 2014. She was a guest artiste on the song, Monster, by Maco. In 2015, she signed under OGG label, which is owned by OG Maco.
Doja‘s success skyrocketed in 2018 as she released two singles, Roll With Us and Go To Town within two months. The singles were well received internationally and won her more fans. Her debut studio album, Amala was released in March, 2018. The album charted in Europe and North America (United States and Canada). One of the album’s single, Candy, rose to No. 86 on Billboard Hot 100. In August 2018, her self produced music video, Mooo! was released on YouTube. The song was a huge success and received millions of views on the video watching platform. In 2019, she collaborated with Rico Nasty on the single, Tia Tamera.
She re-released her debut album in 2019, after including three new tracks. Her popular song, Juicy, is one of the tracks. She featured rapper, Tyga, on the remix of the song. The song was a hit as millions of fans streamed and downloaded it. It was certified Platinum in the United States.
A year after the release of her debut album, Doja Cat released a second project – Hot Pink. The album contains hit singles like Bottom Bitch, Say So, Boss Bitch and Like That. Within months of its release, the album rose to NO. 9 on Billboard 200. In 2020, she was invited to perform Say So at The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. She did a remix of the song with Nicki Minaj in May 2020. She earned two nominations at the 20th BET Awards; the categories are Best Female Hip Hop Artist and Video Of The Year.
It was revealed that Doja Cat was the fourth most-Googled artiste of 2020 in USA. In 2021, She was featured by rapper, Saweetie on the song, Best Friend. She and Megan Thee Stallion collaborated with Ariana Grande on the remix of the song, 34+35. Alongside Sia, she appeared on Ozuna‘s single, Del Mac. The song is one of the tracks of the album, Enoc. She was a guest artiste on the remix of The Weeknd‘s song, In Your Eyes, which was released in May 2020. She collaborated with Lil Wayne on his album, Funeral. She worked with Ariana Grande‘s once more on the latter’s 2020 album, Positions.
She made her acting debut in the third season of the Fox series, Empire. She has a nice height of 1 m 65 cm.
Awards and Nominations
Doja Cat won the award for Push Best New Artist at the 2020 MTV Video Music Awards.
She was nominated for the Best Female Hip Hop Artist and Video Of The Year at the 20th BET Awards.
Social Media
Doja Cat has over 10.9m followers on Instagram and over 2.9m followers on Twitter.
Instagram handle – @dojacat
Twitter handle – @DojaCat
Personal Life
The 25-year old, Doja Cat is bi-sexual. She is based in the United States and currently resides in the affluent Beverly Hills neighborhood of California. Her home is a mansion and it was bought for $2.2 million.
A humanitarian at heart, she showed her support to an African-American woman who was unjustly killed by the police by donating $100,000 to the Justice For Breonna Taylor Fund. The support fund went to her family. She once dated indie rock singer, Jawny for six months before they parted ways.
Since she broke into limelight, she has organized a couple of tours and concerts. They include: Purrr! Tour (2014), Amala Spring Tour (2017-2018), Amala Fall Tour (2018-2019). She had organized a fourth tour, Hot Pink Tour but it was cancelled due to the Covid-19 Pandemic.
Net Worth
Doja Cat is one of the highest paid singers in the United States. She has an estimated net worth fixed between $1-5 million.
