Doja Cat Gives Stand-Out Performance at Foellinger Auditorium

The first time I heard of Doja Cat, I was laying down in bed at a Japanese capsule hotel in mid-August of 2018. Scrolling through my Twitter timeline I saw this tweet. “Bitch I’m a Cow?”, I asked myself. “What is this ‘Bitch I’m a Cow’?” I did some internet research and discovered Doja Cat’s “Mooo!” and immediately decided it was a 100% bop. Thus, my appreciation of Doja Cat began. Walking through the streets of Kyoto the next day, “Mooo!” was my soundtrack and nothing could stop me from playing the SoundCloud rip of the video on repeat.I heard about the Doja Cat concert at Foellinger Auditorium a few days before it was announced (don’t ask how) and immediately knew I had to be in attendance. With a recent rise in popularity following “Mooo!”, Doja Cat’s concert was certainly a well-anticipated performance among us college-age music consumers. Save for a few ADA seats and some spots in the balcony (as of this morning, that figure might be outdated), tonight’s concert was completely sold out. Going to the ticket office at State Farm Center early this morning, I knew that tonight’s show was going to be something special.Opener Mother Nature definitely had a good group of fans in the crowd. Spitting some slick bars, the duo stood for black women's empowerment and thanked the black women in the audience for making their appearance possible. Mother Nature was all good vibes, telling audience members to leave fear at the door, making everyone feel good at the start of the night.After testing her mic backstage and getting loud cheers from the crowd, Doja Cat walked onstage in a leopard print, skin-tight suit with a black faux-fur coat over it all. Doja didn’t know where she was in Illinois, but nonetheless got massive cheers after saying “Champaign, how you doin’ tonight?”. The beginning of her set was comprised of much of her earlier work, showing off her vocal chops with the pop-tinged R&B singing that started her career back in 2013. As she took her coat off and danced more freely, the set transitioned to her more recent hits, starting with the surprising yet well-received “NintendHoe”. By the end of the set, when Doja sang “Go To Town”, “Juicy”, and “Tia Tamara”, everyone in all of Foellinger screamed each and every lyric. Teasing her fans at the end, Doja told the audience that she forgot a song before going into “Mooo!”.Why was Doja Cat’s concert so great? I could talk about the amazing setlist or the audience knowing the words ‘till the cows come home (that pun was definitely intended). What made this performance so spectacular was that Doja’s personality shined through. There aren’t many artists these days who can be honest, sensual, and wacky in the most fun way possible, but Doja Cat accomplishes all three simultaneously, with ease. As a young artist, Doja knows what her younger audience is like. We’re not all here for an artist who’s always serious, and Doja capitalizes on this by performing in a way that’s fun for the audience, but most importantly, fun for herself. Her energy is palpable, her chops with singing and rap are more than evident, and her songs are irresistible. There was no better artist to have graced Foellinger Auditorium tonight, and I guarantee no other artist at U of I this upcoming school year will ever have a concert quite like hers.All images © Federico Hernandez Nater 2019