Doja Cat is speaking up for classical performing arts after Timothée Chalamet suggested that no one cares about opera or ballet anymore.
In a TikTok video that’s been going around, Doja Cat defended her point of view on opera and ballet, citing how long these performing arts have been around and how dedicated one has to be to them.
“Opera is four hundred years old. Ballet is five hundred years old,” she said. “Somebody named Tim, Timothy Chalamet, had the nerve to say on camera that nobody cares about it. I’m sure you can walk into an opera theater right now, seats will be filled out, and nobody will say a word as the performance is going, because everybody has that much respect for it.”
Furthermore, Doja Cat also discussed” the etiquette involved in these kinds of performances.
“There is an etiquette around opera, there is etiquette around ballet. It’s amazing. It’s an amazing theater medium. It’s beautiful,” she said. “Dancers show up at eight a.m., six a.m., whatever. They show up, and they break, and they bleed every single day just because they have respect for it.”
However, Doja Cat also said that just because these kinds of performances in the industry are having a tough time, it doesn’t mean no one cares about them.
“Just because the industry is having a tough time doesn’t mean people don’t care about it,” she said. “Dancers care, the singers care, the audience cares. There’s still an audience.”
@dojacat :/
♬ original sound – Doja Cat
The comments were seen as a response to what Chalamet said at a CNN/Variety town hall meeting with Matthew McConaughey.
Chalamet was speaking about the debates in entertainment about traditional formats.
“I’m really right in the middle, Matthew,” Chalamet said. “‘Cause I admire people who go on a talk show and say, ‘Hey, we gotta keep movie theaters alive.’ But another part of me feels like if people want to see something, like Barbie, like Oppenheimer, they’re gonna go see it and go out of their way and be loud and proud about it.”
He also said he wouldn’t be in artistic spaces that depended on the preservation of traditional formats.
“I don’t want to be working in ballet or opera or things where it’s like, ‘Hey, keep this thing alive,'” he said. “Even though it’s like, no one cares about this anymore. All respect to the ballet and opera people out there.”
He was immediately criticized by other artists and fans of the performing arts, who said that opera and ballet were major cultural events worldwide.
However, Doja Cat agreed with him, saying that these traditional formats still had cultural importance.
“People give a [expletive],” she said. “You show up in a nice outfit, you sit down, and shut up. That’s the etiquette around those things. Maybe learn something from that.”
