Doja Cat’s ‘Balut’ Explanation Has Her Filipino Fans Up In Arms About Misrepresenting Their Culture

Susmaryosep! Doja Cat’s been on a mission to annoy her fans lately, but her explanation of new single “Balut” may have gone a little too far. Plenty of fans were wondering about the song’s title, which refers to a Filipino street food dish, but her translation of just what that dish actually is has Filipino fans standing up for their culture, which they feel she misrepresented.

“I named the song ‘Balut’ because it signifies a bird that’s being eaten alive,” she wrote on Instagram. “It’s a metaphor for Twitter stans and the death of Twitter toxicity. The beginning of ‘X’ and the end of ‘tweets.’”

However, it appears that Doja misunderstood what balut actually is. While the dish does consist of a duck or chicken embryo being eaten out of its own shell, the bird is not alive when its eaten, which would be a little extreme for just about anyone, no matter how “exotic” you may think their culture is. Funnily enough, the majority of the backlash against the misunderstanding came on… well, Twitter (still not calling it “X,” you dork).

“Eaten alive?” one fan questioned. “Who eats balut alive? Girl you dont need to shame my culture if you dont understand it. Pahuya huya ka lang [a Tagalog expression meaning “shame on you,” albeit misspelled by the user].”

Another fan explained that “balut is not eaten alive. It’s already boiled.”

It seems Doja herself doesn’t quite know what balut is, even after trying it herself. Although she recognized that it is fertilized duck egg, she said it “moved around a bit,” which could be exaggeration on her part or even just a little bit of her imagination getting the best of her. “It wasn’t as whimsical as I thought it would be,” she said. “Like, the full… there’s feathers and it’s like, you know, you’re eating it straight up. It wasn’t like that at all.”

From personal experience: No, there are no feathers, but it is a full bird. The worst part is the toenails. They’re VERY crunchy. But who knows? Maybe you’ll like that sort of thing. Go ahead and try it.

In the meantime, you can listen to “Balut” now and check it out with the rest of Doja’s album Scarlet on Friday, 9/22.