Doja Cat Surrounded By Bloodied Dancers as She Returns to Stage Following Fan Controversy

Paint the town red indeed! Doja Cat took the stage at the 2023 MTV Video Music Awards on Tuesday to perform “Attention,” “Paint the Town Red,” and “Demons,” all while surrounded by dancers who were painted red to look bloodied.

Doja began her three track performance wearing a suit, with her hair pulled back and her glasses on. By the end of the performance of the songs off of her forthcoming album, Scarlet, Doja had shed her suit jacket and glasses and let her blonde hair down.

The crowd was all-in on Doja’s performance, with Taylor Swift and Tiffany Haddish among the stars who were spotted rocking out during her time on stage.

Doja is nominated for five VMAs this year, including Video of the Year for “Attention.” 

Her VMAs performance comes just a month after the 27-year-old rapper addressed a fan controversy in which she reportedly lost more than 180,000 Instagram followers after blasting her fan base.

“Seeing all these people unfollow me makes me feel like I’ve defeated a large beast that’s been holding me down for so long and it feels like I can reconnect with the people who really matter and love me for who I am and not for who I was,” Doja wrote on her Instagram Story at the time. “I feel free.”

The social media drama started in July when Doja Cat blasted her fan base for referring to themselves as “kittenz” or “kitten.”

She tweeted, “My fans don’t get to name themselves s**t. If you call yourself a ‘kitten’ or f**king ‘kittenz’ that means you need to get off your phone and get a job and help your parents with the house,” she wrote on Twitter.

When a fan account who uses the handle @thekittenzweb asked, “What should I change my name to since you don’t like the term kitten[?],” Doja Cat responded with, “Just delete the entire account and rethink everything it’s not too late.”

The 2023 MTV Video Music Awards is coming to you live from the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, at 8 p.m. ET/PT on MTV. Follow along at ETonline.com for full coverage from this year’s VMAs, including the complete list of the nominees and the night’s big winners.

RELATED CONTENT: