When Doja Cat made her VMA debut last night (August 30), she went full pink. Her first-ever performance on the awards-show stage found the artist bathed in hot fuchsia as she delivered her hits “Say So” and “Like That,” songs that span nu-disco and pop-rap and are just a sample of the styles she keeps in her toolbox. Her 2019 album Hot Pink, for example, layered a rusty Blink-182 guitar arpeggio over a trap-inspired beat, and by the closer, she was diving into the technicolor realm of sparkly R&B.
Doja had another big moment during the show: when she took the stage to accept the PUSH Best New Artist award and thanked her fans as well as her mom, cementing her place as a unique talent to continue watching. But what could possibly be next for her as she plans her next musical move?
“I’m always kind of winging it,” she told MTV News correspondent Dometi Pongo.
“I have my album coming — can’t say when. I really want to make it a surprise. I don’t want to say too much,” Doja said, carefully. But though she couldn’t reveal any specifics, she said the new album’s energy in grounded in how each new song has its own “personality.” “It’s not gonna be perfectly consistent — I’ve never been, anyway. But we have some dancehall stuff on there, some Afrobeat stuff, some funk, house. I’m trying to cover all bases.”
While she waits to release it — and while we wait to hear what her base coverage might sound like — Doja’s got her PUSH Best New Artist trophy to enjoy, though she told MTV News the mere shock of winning made her first thing she was being fooled. “I thought it was a sick prank!” she said. “No, I was really, really excited to find that out and I didn’t know how to try to hold myself back from tears. I usually say that I don’t care about this kind of thing, but I actually do. I now know that I do care about getting this award, a lot.”
“It means that there are people out there who enjoy my music and they care about me, like they care about the craft,” she continued. “They care about what I’m doing. That’s amazing for me because I just enjoy doing it, period. If people didn’t like it, I’d probably still be doing it, but it’s really cool that people support it.”
In addition to making her VMA stage debut, Doja Cat took home PUSH Best New Artist and also was nominated for Song of the Year and Best Direction. Find out all the night’s winners right here.
