After Timothée Chalamet dismissed opera as irrelevant, Doja Cat defended the art form emphasising its history, beauty, and devoted audience.
Image: X/Vieja Cat
Pop star, internet menace and occasional chaos agent Doja Cat has decided that ballet and opera deserve a little respect and she’s not afraid to drag a Hollywood heartthrob into the conversation to make the point.
The Grammy winner recently had a few pointed words for Hollywood darling Timothée Chalamet after his eyebrow-raising take on opera and ballet made the rounds online. And let’s just say Doja didn’t arrive quietly, she showed up with the energy of someone who absolutely had time that day.
The singer posted a now-deleted TikTok filmed while she was casually wrapped in a towel fresh from the shower, and decided to address the situation head-on - while very deliberately mispronouncing Chalamet’s name like someone who knows exactly what they’re doing.
“Hey, by the way, opera is 400 years old, ballet is 500 years old. Somebody named Tim-ohtay Chalamet had the nerve, big guy, by the way, had the nerve to say, on camera, that nobody cares about it,” the singer began.
If subtlety was invited to this conversation, it clearly missed the memo.
Her response came after Chalamet made comments during a February panel with Matthew McConaughey while promoting his upcoming film "Marty Supreme".
During the discussion, Chalamet casually tossed ballet and opera into the category of art forms people supposedly aren’t interested in anymore, a statement that landed about as smoothly as a pirouette on roller skates.
“I don’t want to be working in ballet, or opera, or things where it’s like, ‘Hey, keep this thing alive, even though, like, no one cares about this anymore.’ All respect to all the ballet and opera people out there,” he said. “I just lost 14 cents in viewership. I just took shots for no reason.”
Social media, however, did not treat it like “no reason”. Doja, clearly unimpressed, jumped in to remind everyone that centuries-old art forms aren’t exactly gathering dust in a forgotten corner somewhere.
“I’m sure you can walk into an opera theater right now, seats will be filled out and nobody’s saying a word as the performance is going because everybody has that much respect for it,” she continued.
“There is an etiquette around opera. There is etiquette around ballet. It is amazing. It’s an amazing theatre medium. It’s f**king beautiful and people go there every day to the dance studio.”
In other words: just because it isn’t trending on TikTok doesn’t mean it’s irrelevant.
Doja also pointed out that every creative industry hits rough patches, including her own, but that doesn’t magically erase the audiences and artists who care deeply about the work.
“It doesn’t matter if the industry is having a tough time at any time, which a lot of industries have a tough time,” she said. “Your industry has a tough time, my industry has a tough time. Doesn’t mean people don’t care about it. People care. The dancers care, the singers care, the audience cares.”
She wrapped things up with one final mic-drop moment that summed up the entire debate.
“There’s still an audience. People give a f***. You show up in a nice outfit. You sit the f*** down and shut the f–k up. That’s the usual etiquette around those things. Maybe learn something from that.”
Meanwhile, opera houses have decided to treat the whole situation with a wink rather than a meltdown. Several venues have turned the viral moment into free marketing by launching ticket promotions using Chalamet’s name and even inviting him to attend a performance.
And somewhere in the world, a ballet dancer probably took a graceful bow while the internet argued about it.