Doja Cat made waves not only for her show-stopping outfit and wins at the 2022 Billboard Music Awards on Sunday (May 15), but also for taking a large swig of her beverage before hopping on stage to give her acceptance speech for top R&B album during the ceremony. As it turns out, there’s a reason why Doja downed her drink before addressing the audience.
Speaking with Entertainment Tonight after the awards show, Doja told the outlet she needed to chug her drink because she was both unaware of what was going on and did not expect that she would win the award. She said, “I’m briefed on things, like there’s things that I know, like when I’m nominated and things like that. But my mind is in other places. Like, ‘Oh my god, Janet Jackson is 10 feet away from me.’ And ‘Oh my god, Mary J. Blige has also been 10 feet away from me for the last, how long have we been here?’ And so my mind is on everything else.”
“But then when it happens, [I go blank],” Doja added. “So I was shocked and I ran up. And I was like, ‘I need something.’ Because I felt like my first speech was flat, a little bit? I don’t know. But it was great. It was amazing.”
Doja took home the award for top R&B album for her 2021 release, Planet Her, which peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 and has spent a total of 46 weeks and counting on the chart thus far. She also won in the top R&B female artist and top R&B artist categories.
Watch Doja’s acceptance speech, which took place after she took the swig from her drink, below.
