Credit: Spotify

Doja Cat, the widely professed Queen of Pop-Rap, is a hugely significant public figure. She was literally declared as such by Time magazine in 2023, which named her on its world’s most influential people list that year.

But powerful, inspirational people, like everyone else, tend to have their own idols and sources of inspiration, and Doja Cat is no different. Both as an artist and as a fan, she has turned towards a wide range of acts through the years, some of whom are quite different to herself.

Listing some of the songs that she can’t live without during a conversation with Rolling Stone in 2021, Doja highlighted five genre-spanning tracks. But it was the first one that she mentioned that, arguably, was the biggest curveball of them all.

The track was ‘Le Jazz et La Java,’ a French-language song performed by Yves Montand. The song was originally recorded by Claude Nougaro in the early ’60s, but it was Montand’s version that Doja liked best. That, in part, was down to a peculiar thing he did with his voice on the recording.

“There’s a part in the song,” she explained to Rolling Stone, “where the guy is singing—and the whole song is in French, but he does something with his voice where he’s like…” She then recreates this noise that Montand makes, which sounds like rising vocal fry. It is a difficult technique to capture in words, as Doja seemed to appreciate. Laughing, she advised, “Everyone should hear it.”

The second song Doja picked out was ‘Lonely Nights’ by Babyxsosa, which she claimed to have listened to every day for the previous month. “I love this song,” she said, “because it has a very happy, at the same time sad, kind of nostalgic feeling to it.”

Doja’s third pick was ‘Open Up the Door’ by Mulherin, a song she claimed to have “on repeat constantly” at the time. “It’s very sexy,” she said of the track. “I love sexy music, and this is just one of those really good R&B songs that I can’t live without.”

Number four was ‘Mythological Beauty’ by Big Thief, who she claimed as one of her favourite ever bands. “I just connect a lot with this particular song, because the lyrics are fantastic,” she said. “It’s just a well-written, well-produced, great kind of folk song.”

Last but not least, Doja’s fifth selection was ‘Try Me’ by Ms Sancha, which was a big song for her while she was growing up. From about the age of 13, or possibly younger, Doja felt inspired by this song and she felt now that it had “defined my childhood in a way.” For that, she claimed she could never do without it again.