Watch Doja Cat’s performance of Hiatus Kaiyote’s “Red Room”
She played the cover, as well as her own Scarlet tracks “Agora Hills” and “Paint The Town Red,” during a set at the BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge.
BBC Radio 1 has closed out its Live Lounge Month with a short set from Doja Cat. Across 13 minutes, she performed “Agora Hills” and “Paint The Town Red” — both tracks from her latest album, Scarlet — and closed out with a surprise cover of “Red Room,” a 2021 track by the Australian fusion band Hiatus Kaiyote. In her largely faithful rendition, Doja shows off her chops, hitting Hiatus Kaiyote singer Nai Palm’s intricate vocal runs with grace.
Doja has been in the news for more than just music lately: In apparently intentional efforts to ostracize her fanbase, she’s denied their right to call themselves “kittens,” rejected requests to show them love, and breathed a sigh of relief when half a million of them reportedly unfollowed her. More recently, she was criticized for posting and deleting a photo of herself wearing a T-shirt featuring controversial comedian Sam Hyde.
Still, Doja’s “Red Room” cover will no doubt be a boon for Hiatus Kaiyote’s streaming numbers, turning a swath of her millions of remaining fans onto their music. (For comparison: “Red Room,” released more than two years ago, has been streamed on Spotify a more-than-respectable 21.7 million times, making it the group’s most popular song. Four songs from Scarlet, released just over a month ago, have already amassed more Spotify streams, with “Paint The Town Read” currently sitting at 488.6 million.)
Watch Doja Cat cover “Red Room” above, and scroll down to see her Live Lounge performances of “Agora Hills” and “Paint The Town Red.”