Doja Cat is supposedly a big fan of Taco Bell’s Mexican Pizza. Now it’s coming back
Doja Cat’s supposed love of Taco Bell’s Mexican Pizza is about as messy and layered as the discontinued menu item.
On Monday, the “Kiss Me More” singer-rapper and fast-food chain announced the May 19 return of the culinary concoction that was taken off the menu in 2020. The move comes a few weeks after Doja Cat shared an underwhelming jingle that she was commissioned to write in which she showed her purported appreciation for the snack.
As the company’s campaign came to fruition on Monday, it’s unclear whether it ever had the 26-year-old’s artistic blessing. The “Say So” and “You Right” hitmaker claimed to have written the commercial ode poorly on purpose. And that’s the kind of chaotic energy we’ve come to expect from her.
The Times’ Mikael Wood and Suzy Exposito report live from the 2022 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival at the Empire Polo Club in Indio.
Dubbed “one of Taco Bell’s most vocal customers-slash-critics,” Doja Cat partnered with Taco Bell in February for its Super Bowl LVI commercial in which she sang a cover of Hole’s “Celebrity Skin” in a big game spot.
Then, in March, the Grammy winner unveiled the “monstrosity” of a song for the Mexican Pizza on TikTok — where she has 23.3 million followers — urging Taco Bell to bring back the fan favorite. She then celebrated its return on Sunday at the end of her debut set at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, just before the fast-food giant announced the news.
“Doja Cat, the voice of the Taco Bell people, was one of the first to confirm the news this past weekend, when she literally dropped the mic with the HOT news of the Mexican Pizza’s return this May,” Taco Bell said in a press release Monday corroborating the company’s late-night tweet about it. The Irvine, Calif.-based company also credited fan demand and the singer for enabling the pizza’s return. (More than 200,000 signatures were made on a Change.org petition, and country queen Dolly Parton was also among those hoping to bring it back.)
For the uninitiated, the fast-food snack consists of seasoned beef, refried beans, pizza sauce, cheese and diced tomatoes layered between flat, crispy flour shells. It was discontinued in November 2020 after 35 years on the menu after Taco Bell reviewed and removed several products to streamline its menu. The pizza, shredded chicken and pico de gallo didn’t survive the pandemic-era cut.
McDonald’s, In-N-Out, Carl’s Jr., Taco Bell, Del Taco, Der Wienerschnitzel ... you name the fast-food joint, it probably started here.
Doja Cat’s goofy Taco Bell jingle on TikTok was lampooned and deemed contractual by her and fans when she posted it last month. However, the song was remixed more than a thousand times on the video-sharing app.
She debuted the song — if you can call it that — in the least excited way possible, then unenthusiastically recited the lyrics and captioned the bizarre ditty with “god help us all.”
“I made a song about Mexican Pizza because I love it so much. I wish that Taco Bell didn’t discontinue it a year ago. And this led me to this monstrosity of a beat that I just made, and I wrote a verse, and I hope you like it. And if you don’t, I understand,” she said.
“I like my pizza with refried beans / Peep my ad / Search YouTube / This ain’t even Mexican food / But I don’t care when the clock hits 2 a.m. / p.m. if that is your mood,” she rapped, then concluded the track with a nod to the Krusty Krab Pizza Song from “SpongeBob SquarePants.”
It was not quite the award-grabbing content you expect from the recent Grammy winner, but that might have been the point. In Monday’s press release, Taco Bell Chief Executive Mark King alluded to the work as an “infamous” jingle.
Locals looking to make a run for the border will have to go a little farther, after the fast food restaurant on Tuesday served its last taco. A new taco stand will take its place.
To her credit, just before debuting the song on TikTok in March, the 26-year-old warned her followers that the puzzling business move was coming and that she didn’t really want to to do it, so she was going to “make it terrible on purpose.”
“I just want to give you a heads up, before you see that s—, it’s contractual,” she said in the clip. “Shhh, I know it’s bad.” She also claimed that she banned her team from calling it a “jingle.”
Taco Bell’s official TikTok account commented on that video and ribbed her by writing: “Pretty sure the jingle was your idea.”
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