Doja Cat was spotted vaping at the Met Gala 2023 and the backlash has at least some people wondering whether it will be the last time she receives an invitation to the annual star-studded fundraising gala.
The American rapper who has worked alongside such artists as The Weeknd, SZA, Ariana Grande, and Post Malone was seen vaping not once but multiple times during the gala, which is widely considered to be among the world’s most prestigious social gatherings.
The Met Gala typically hosts hundreds of attendees, including those perceived as culturally relevant, such as famous musicians like Doja Cat, whose real name is Amala Ratna Zandile Dlamini.
The 27-year-old “Kiss Me More” singer may have made quite the faux pas in the eyes of Anna Wintour, the host of the Met Gala and Vogue’s editor-in-chief, when she puffed on her vape during the celebrity gala. Not long before the night of the gala, Wintour appeared alongside Andrew Bolton, the Met Museum Costume Institute’s curator-in-charge, in an interview with CBS’ Gayle King in which the two noted that smoking inside of the gallery and touching the art were among the best ways never to be invited back to the star-packed fashion event.
While Doja might not have touched the art or smoked in the gallery, she most definitely took some puffs from her vape. Whether or not that’s enough to have her Met Gala pass revoked is unclear. If she’s not invited back next year, perhaps we will all know why.
For those wondering if Doja seriously hit a vape at the Met Gala, the answer is definitely yes. The Los Angeles-born rapper, who brought her stage name to life at the gala with the help of cat ears and facial prosthetics that gave her the appearance of an actual cat, was spotted blowing out a cloud of vapor during the Vogue livestream.
In response to her vape use at the glamorous event, in which she was clearly one of the night’s stars, some fans took to Twitter to question her vape use and speculate on whether she’d be invited to return. One such Twitter user wrote that Doja was “never being invited back” after she was spotted vaping. Another wrote that “hitting her vape on the red carpet is so on brand” for Doja.
DailyMail.com reported that it had reached out to reps for the “Need To Know” singer and that her reps had indicated that the vape she was spotted using throughout the event did not contain nicotine and that it was only filled with flavored water.
While Doja may have been the only attendee to make headlines for vaping at this year’s Met Gala, she’s far from the only celebrity to have been spotted vaping. Other celebrity vapers that have been spotted vaping include “My Prerogative” singer Bobby Brown, who is widely credited for being one of the pioneers behind the hip-hop and R&B fusion that is new jack swing, and then there’s Snoop Dogg, who literally has his own vaporizer brand, and Wiz Khalifa, whose team partnered with vape manufacturer Grenco Science to release a Taylor Gang line of portable vapes.
The 2023 Met Gala’s theme was Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty. The controversial German fashion designer served as Chanel’s long-running creative director. He died in 2019 at the age of 85.
Doja Cat’s costume inspiration was derived from the late German fashion designer’s cat, Choupette Lagerfeld. The blue-cream tortie Birman cat has its own Instagram profile where it has over a quarter-million followers.
In order for Doja to achieve her look for the night, she utilized prosthetics that gave her nose, mouth, and upper eyes an appearance similar to those of a feline.
Despite her vape use, Doja certainly made an effort to play the part, channeling her inner-cat by continually meowing at a journalist while they attempted to question her during the red-carpet chat.