Doja Cat stans were elated when she won a Grammy at the 2022 Grammy Awards. She took home a gramophone for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance alongside singer SZA for the hit “Kiss Me More.” Fans weren’t the only ones happy for the entertainer though, as her father, Dumisani Dlamini, was too.
“Just wanted to thank everyone who supported my child Zandile God bless you all,” he wrote in an Instagram post.
The acknowledgment of the win is significant considering what the rapper has said about her relationship with Dlamini in the past. In a clip floating around social media from 2019, Doja Cat met Whoopi Goldberg, who worked with Dlamini, and said that she never met her father.
“I’m just thinking about my dad ’cause he was in Sarafina! so seeing you and meeting you is like the craziest thing,” she told Goldberg. While The View co-host lauded her father and said he’s a “good man,” the rapper said, “I didn’t get to meet him but you did.”
Dlamini was a cast member of the 1992 musical Sarafina. He reportedly moved back to South Africa to pursue his career when Doja was a baby. But he’s said that he’s attempted to reach out.
“I have been looking for my daughter as well,” he told Metro FM. “You mustn’t forget these Americans. Americans will always want to have something to cause a stir, so that she stays in the media and is talked about around the world.”
“She got hold of me. We spoke. We connected,” he added. “Now, at this time when she is there and on top, she has to grab the whole world[‘s attention], especially in SA because she is a South African and her daddy is here. It’s a made-up thing.”
Maybe since then the two have met and connected? Doja Cat hasn’t publicly commented on this, but either way, we’re happy she won her first Grammy and hope both parties are at peace.