Doja Cat has hit back at comparisons people have made of her to Britney Spears after Doja recently shaved her head.
Speaking to Variety in a new interview, Doja says the comparisons to Spears were harmful in light of what Spears was going through at the time.
In 2007, Spears shaved her head in a highly-publicised moment that was captured by photographers following the musician. In 2008, she was admitted to hospital under a temporary psychiatric assessment ruling and placed under a controversial conservatorship that saw her father take control of all her personal affairs and finances.
In 2021, the conservatorship was finally terminated in court after 14 years amid claims it was “abusive” and left Spears “traumatised”. Spears later stated that she wanted to have her father, Jamie, charged for conservatorship abuse. He has denied the claims.
Speaking about the comparisons to Spears’ moment in 2007, Doja Cat said: “It’s so incredibly disrespectful for people to be minimising what Britney went through and make a joke out of something that was very serious and a big deal in her life.
“Every time I see a comment like that, I can’t compute what’s happening, other than it’s just an awful thing.”
Doja then went on to discuss her decision to shave her hair in more detail. “I needed to change something,” she told Variety.
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“I wasn’t working out and wasn’t really taking care of myself in the way that I wanted to. I was like, ‘I need to do something,’ so I just chopped it all off. And I could see the shape of my head. I could see my whole face… it’s the best choice I’ve ever made, and I’ve never felt more beautiful.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Doja went on to reveal that she will release another album by the end of 2023.
“I want to explore punk,” she continued. “But not pop-punk. I feel like we have enough pop-punk artists right now. And if there needs to be more, then let there be more, but I don’t think I’m the one to do it.”
“I want to explore more of a raw, unfiltered, hardcore punk sort of thing,” she continued, also noting she wants to focus more on R&B and rap as opposed to pop and dance music. “It’s just something that I’m doing for my own personal fun — getting some drummers and guitarists together. And I don’t even know if that’s gonna make it out there.”
Doja Cat’s last album, ‘Planet Her’, arrived in 2021, earning the singer and rapper her first Grammy Award for SZA collaboration ‘Kiss Me More’.
Last year, she featured on Tyga‘s ‘Freaky Deaky’ and appeared on Post Malone‘s ‘Twelve Carat Toothache’ cut ‘I Like You (A Happier Song)’. She also contributed the song ‘Vegas’ to the soundtrack for Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis.