Doja Cat’s 2020 Success Story
The “Say So” singerrapper is Rolling Stone’s biggest breakthrough artist of the year. Plus: How Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams” cruised back onto the charts after 43 years.
WHEN YOUR FIRST HIT is a novelty track and your breakout moment is a meme, it can be hard to make the transition to a serious star. See, for example, the short-lived career of the Royal
Teens, the New Jersey rock band behind 1958’s “Short Shorts,” or Rebecca Black’s efforts to follow up the viral success of her 2011 hit “Friday.”
But two years after the very funny “Mooo!” — a song she has since called “a joke” — singer and rapper Doja Cat has done the nearly impossible, topping our list of the biggest breakthrough artists of 2020. While her second album, Hot Pink, debuted at Number 19 on the RS 200 back in November 2019, it didn’t hit its peak until this year. That success is largely thanks to “Say So,” the glimmering disco-pop jam released as a single at the top of the year. “Say So” caught the attention of Nicki Minaj, who jumped on a remix and helped take the song to Number Two on the RS 100. Hot Pink went on to Number Eight on the albums chart, and Doja Cat reached Number 17 on the Artists 500. In 2020 alone, Doja Cat saw more than 1 billion on-demand audio streams in the U.S., up more than 250 percent from 2019. E.B.