Doja Cat took the Coachella major stage because the final official act to carry out on Sunday’s invoice, changing into the primary feminine rapper to headline the competition. (She’s additionally solely the second Black lady to take action, after Beyoncé in 2018.) Her nearer rounded out a Sunday showcase of powerhouse feminine performers comparable to Reneé Rapp and Kesha duetting the recession banger TiK ToK – altering the opening line to “get up within the morning saying fuck P Diddy” – and Victoria Monet grinding by a slick and ultra-sexy set, at one level receiving artfully-simulated oral intercourse from a background dancer.
It could be diplomatic to say that Doja maintains a distant relationship together with her followers, who name themselves kittenz, although their fave doesn’t sanction this moniker. Doja has informed those that have interaction in parasocial relationships with the thought of her to “get off your telephone and get a job” and “rethink every part” about their lives. Such boundary-setting has value her some Instagram followers – round 300,000, to be precise, after going off on them in a social media tirade – however she might care much less. “I be happy,” she wrote in an Instagram story after the snafu final 12 months.
So it’s not shocking that Doja stored the stage banter to a minimal; about an hour in, she allowed a cursory, however seemingly real, “Thanks everybody.” That was about it. Nonetheless, Doja didn’t want to provide us the cliched “it’s at all times been a dream to carry out on this stage” monologue to indicate a deep respect for her viewers. She did so by placing on a tour de drive of a set, one which merged her musical abilities with a transparent knack for spectacle. I think it’ll turn into a staple on best-of-Coachella lists for years to return.
Doja first appeared by popping up on the stage’s prolonged catwalk, opening the evening additional again within the crowd, so these of us who hadn’t made it to the pit acquired a superb take a look at her, too. She first wore an all-white hazmat go well with. I assumed it was a bit of Patrick Bateman; the lady subsequent to me remarked that Doja regarded like “a whole-ass sperm”.
Regardless of the inspiration, she took that off fairly rapidly, revealing extra-long blonde hair that went nicely previous her butt, and an identical tunic additionally fabricated from hair. Her background dancers matched in their very own full hair fits, and when paired with their syncopated strikes, the vibe was a bit of Bob Fosse meets Fraggle Rock. The South African a capella group The Pleasure encircled Doja throughout Shutcho, a diss monitor for haters that the group become a melodic, choir-like crescendo.
Although Doja is a really 2020s pop star, terminally on-line and well-versed within the meme ecosystem, she didn’t depend on many gimmicks to make it by her set. The stage design was sparse and industrial. Her quite a few outfit modifications stored the identical off-white palette, very Virgil Abloh-esque aesthetic: sculptural, glossy, architectural. My favourite look was a shaggy bikini set by Complete Studios that might have been a reference to Jane Fonda as Barbarella, or only a sartorial nod to the idea of merkins.
Doja tapped A$AP Rocky, 21 Savage and a large recreation of a T-Rex fossil for visitor stars. Throughout her penultimate tune, Paint the City Purple, which samples Dionne Warwick’s 1963 hit Stroll on By, I puzzled for a second if Doja was about to make my complete life and convey out the octogenarian legend herself. As an alternative, she did maybe the other of that and rolled round in a sapphic mud pit together with her background dancers for the finale, Moist Vagina.
Although Doja discovered mainstream success within the pop enviornment with early pandemic groovers like Kiss Me Extra and Say So, her Coachella set caught to rap. Understandably, a lot of it got here from her newest launch, final 12 months’s Scarlet. She described the album as a“masculine” response to her need of shifting away from pop princess-dom.
This meant that the followers who had been there for Doja’s extra accessible fare might have been disenchanted by the exclusion of these songs – when the set ended, many mulled across the stage as in the event that they had been certain she’d come again rearing into Say So. (Once more, she didn’t.)
However to me, it didn’t matter: Doja adopted her intestine, carried out the songs she felt represented her greatest, all introduced in an brisk, top-of-game triumph. For all of the countless chatter this 12 months a few lackluster lineup, Doja proved she’s worthy of a headline spot, as long as the folks in cost – and, crucially, her followers – belief her to do it her personal approach.
