Explicit satanic references, sexualization, and dark spiritual imagery throughout.
Amala Ratna Zandile Dlamini, known as Doja Cat, began her career as a quirky internet-native artist known for playful, viral content like "Mooo!" Her mainstream breakthrough with "Say So" established her as a pop star of genuine talent and commercial appeal. However, her career has taken a dramatic dark turn since 2022 that warrants specific attention from Christians. Her Planet Her era featured sexual content but maintained a relatively playful aesthetic. Her Scarlet album (2023) represents a significant escalation — the entire visual and sonic world of the album is built around themes of Satanism, occult practice, and demonic identity. This is not subtle or ambiguous. Doja Cat has embraced a Satanic aesthetic explicitly and publicly, telling interviewers she finds Satanism aesthetically compelling and designing her entire Scarlet era around this framework.
The Scarlet album rollout featured promotional imagery that was explicitly Satanic: Doja Cat depicted with demonic makeup, horns, and imagery drawn directly from Satanic iconography. The "Paint the Town Red" music video reinforced this aesthetic with deliberate Satanic visual elements. Live performances from this era extended the imagery in ways that are impossible to dismiss as mere artistic provocation. Isaiah 5:20 warns "woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness." The Scarlet era does precisely this — presenting Satanic identity as cool, empowering, and aesthetically superior. For an audience of millions of young fans, this is not spiritually neutral content.
A common defense of artists like Doja Cat is that Satanic imagery is "just aesthetic" — not genuine spiritual practice but transgressive self-expression. This defense underestimates the formative power of imagery and symbolism. Romans 12:2 warns against being "conformed to the pattern of this world" — and repeated exposure to Satanic imagery, however "aesthetic" its framing, conforms the mind toward spiritual darkness. The entertainment industry's normalization of Satanic imagery across the past decade — from Lil Nas X to Sam Smith to Doja Cat — is not a series of unrelated individual artistic choices. It represents a cultural trajectory that Christians should name honestly as Ephesians 6:12 describes: spiritual forces at work in "the heavenly realms."
Doja Cat's pre-Scarlet work scores 20-7/100 due to sexual content and worldly themes. Her Scarlet era scores 7/100 due to explicit Satanic content and imagery. Christians should avoid her music, and parents should be specifically aware that she is enormously popular with teenage girls who may not recognize the spiritual significance of the content they're consuming.
Personal faith and musical content are distinct categories that frequently diverge. GodlyScore evaluates both separately. Key questions: What are the lyrics saying? What worldview do they reflect? Are they consistent with Philippians 4:8 — "whatever is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable"? Score: see full guide.
Engage with specific songs rather than evaluating the artist's name alone. Content varies significantly across albums. See our Christian Musicians hub. The Gospel Coalition provides thoughtful analysis of faith and culture.