How Doja Cat painted the town red with historic Hottest 100 win ...

Doja Cat has well and truly put her foot to the pedal and taken out the top spot triple j's Hottest 100 of 2023 with her critic-panning heater, 'Paint The Town Red'.

With this win she's created Hottest 100 history — not only being the first female rapper to take the crown but also the first woman of colour to do it solo.

An impressive result for a track about not caring what people think and just continuing to cook – even if she didn't particularly like the song herself at first.

"I thought 'Paint The Town Red' reminded me of like, Target or like Macy's. It reminded me of like, GAP," she told Apple Music in December.

"I don't why. It just kind of is that. And I know it starts with a curse word and it's like a little bit edgy in that sense and I say, 'I'm a demon lord!' Like yeah, I get that, but that song just had a very pants-up-high vibe."

Doja's IDGAF anthem hit us like a bolt of lightning in April 2023, when a snippet appeared on TikTok and took everyone's FYP by storm.

Produced by Earl On The Beat, Karl Rubin, Jean Baptiste and DJ Replay, 'Paint The Town Red' samples a loop of 'Walk On By', composed by Burt Bacharach for Dionne Warwick in 1963.

Using that sample as the spine of the track, Doja Cat created the winning formula with a rolling chord progression that keeps walking on by.

Award-winning composer Vivek Maddala described it as a "harmonic perpetual motion machine" in his incredibly in-depth dissection of the track's music theory for Stereogum.

The full track dropped in August, four months after it bounced around the internet and racked up likes, views and duets. It's now featured in 2.7million videos on TikTok, spawned a viral dance challenge and soundtracks everything from gym memes to makeup tutorials and grandmas dancing off beat.

TikTok is familiar territory for Doja Cat, with the video clip for her 2019 breakout hit 'Say So' featuring a cameo and choreography from Haley Sharpe, the Alabama teenager who sent it viral on the platform. Virality and Doja go hand in hand, every move she makes seems to garner the attention she so blatantly refuses to acknowledge.

Outside of her Hottest 100 win, 'Paint The Town Red' has seen incredible success both in Australia and globally. The track has a bonkers 807 million Spotify streams and landed Doja Cat the record-holder for fastest solo female rapper to hit the 400 million mark on the platform and a Grammy nomination for Best Pop Solo Performance.

She spent 10 weeks at the top of the ARIA charts when the track was released in August, went platinum and has now climbed her way to the top of the peoples' vote.

Born and raised in Los Angeles, 28-year-old Doja Cat started releasing music herself on SoundCloud when she was a teenager, with her first track 'So High' landing on the site in 2012.

After signing with RCA Records in 2013, she released her debut EP Purrr! in 2014 and her debut album Amala four years later. Doja Cat got her first taste of viral game with 'MOOO!' in 2018, a track she wrote and recorded in six hours with the help of her Instagram followers.

"We started it on Instagram live," she told DAZED that year. "Just me a 60 other people, and we all had fun coming up with puns and metaphors."

2018 was also the year she collaborated with Rico Nasty on 'Tia Tamera' and made her Coachella debut with the Maryland-born rapper the year after. By 2022, Doja Cat was returning the favour in her showstopping main stage performance and is now tapped to headline the whole thing for the 2024 edition.

This win marks her fourth consecutive year in the annual countdown. She debuted in the list in 2020 with 'Boss Bitch' (#67), had a standout year in 2021 with five placings (#83, #37, #34, #31 and #7) and backed it up in 2022 with 'Vegas' (#22).

She's also been a fave in the Like A Version studio, with Polish Club covering 'Say So' in 2020 and Winston Surfshirt delivering a rendition of 'Kiss Me More' in 2022.

Doja Cat's fourth studio album Scarlet was the feature album in September, which we described as "unapologetic, fiery and full of attitude"

Celebrating year four in the countdown with a gold medal is an incredible moment for both Doja and the Hottest 100, who knows what lil' devil will get up to in 2024.