With 10 nominees up for Album of the Year at the Grammy Awards later this spring, one holds its own amongst the rest: “Planet Her (Deluxe)” (2021) by Doja Cat. With an array of massive hits mixed with an out-of-this-world concept (pun intended), “Planet Her (Deluxe)” cements itself as the deserving nominee vying for the coveted Album of the Year award. “Hot Pink” (2019), Doja Cat's previous studio album, became a viral success after the explosion of track “Say So” across the internet, popularized on platforms such as TikTok. This time around, Doja Cat’s fanbase has grown substantially, and when the announcement of her third studio album hit the mainstream, it was the recipe for success.
It’s difficult to maintain the success that an earlier project or viral hit can create, but Doja Cat surpasses all such expectations with “Planet Her (Deluxe).” The lead single featuring SZA, “Kiss Me More,” reached a peak of No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 and landed in the top six biggest hits in the U.S. of 2021. Still, as of this week, “Kiss Me More” completes an impressive 43 weeks on the U.S. charts, highlighting its success in the mainstream. Though the Grammys attempts to focus primarily on the artistry within music for its awards, when an album is so prevalent and well liked by the masses, it’s hard to deny its case for the award. Other nominees, such as “We Are” (2021) by Jon Batiste, herald critical acclaim but lack the commercial success that “Planet Her (Deluxe)” maintains.
Despite the record sales Doja Cat boasts, “Planet Her (Deluxe)” also holds critical acclaim. OnMetacritic, “Planet Her,” the standard version not the deluxe, has a score of 76 which indicates “generally favorable reviews.”Pitchfork states that “Planet Her” is “a kaleidoscope of pop versatility that benefits greatly from a market that currently values eclecticism. It feels both premeditated and casual, well-crafted yet trenchantly frivolous.”
With fans attaching to songs such as “Woman,” “Ain't Shit,” “Need to Know” and “Get Into It (Yuh),” there’s more than enough on the track listing for any listener. Even “Need to Know” would be considered a sleeper hit by most. Originally released as a promotional single, “Need to Know” continued to climb the charts even higher than the second official single with The Weeknd, “You Right.” Now, “Need to Know” has charted on the Billboard Hot 100 for 35 weeks and is still charting within the top 15. The sustained hits Doja Cat has been able to chart are indicative of the long-lasting impact “Planet Her (Deluxe)” has.
Her own concept, Doja Cat cooked up the idea of “Planet Her” as a place where all people can live in harmony. She celebrates this throughout her body of work, and it's evident through all tracks, standard and deluxe, that “Planet Her” is a place where all people should want to live. Because of this, Doja Cat reimagines what it means to be a crossover artist whose influences in rap, pop, R&B and more are extremely innovative and well executed. There are few artists who have the ability to craft an album so perfectly executed and so commercially successful, which add to the multitude of reasons why “Planet Her (Deluxe)” should be the Album of the Year.
Undeniably, Doja Cat's “Planet Her (Deluxe)” should take home the trophy for Album of the Year. If the trend will keep up with the last three consecutive ceremonies, a female act will take home the award [“Golden Hour” (2018), “When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?” (2019), “Folklore” (2020)], and what better album to do so than the true ode to the modern woman, “Planet Her (Deluxe)”?
