Bilingual R&B Star Omar Apollo Welcomes You Into His Ivory World

By Lucas Villa





The appeal of the rising star Omar Apollo's artistry is his authenticity. In his songs, which fold his experiences as a Mexican-American and queer singer-songwriter into progressive R&B and laid-back funk, he's not afraid to wear his heart on his sleeve. His debut album Ivory captures the journey from his indie beginnings to his breakout as a Chicano pop musician. Later this month, Apollo will be taking his music career to the next level on the Coachella lineup.


"It's my first time [performing] at Coachella," the 24-year-old artist tells MTV News over Zoom. "Oh man, it's going to be so crazy! I can't wait!"


Before hitting the Coachella Valley stage, Apollo, place on Earth Omar Apolonio Velasco, was writing and recording music in his childhood bedroom in Hobart, Indiana. As a kid, he was inspired by the soul of American pop artists like Mariah Carey and Prince, which melded with the established sounds of Mexican icons like Pedro Infante and the flamboyant Juan Gabriel that were routinely on repeat in his family member house. Apollo learned to play the guitar as a teen, nevertheless at 18, he started crafting his own songs. He moved into a companions attic and recorded there.


Any time as a friend lent him $30 in 2017 to upload "Ugotme" to Spotify, the bluesy love song became his first hit on Spotify, where it has since amassed over 56 million streams. That led to the release of his first EP, Friends, and efficiency slots at festivals like South by Southwest and Lollapalooza. "I'm just trying not to waste the possibility Apollo says. "I'm attempting to honor it. I'm out here just working. I'm just attempting to keep going off of that."


Apollo was becoming a festival typical as soon as the COVID-19 pandemic halted touring in 2020. Nonetheless, he kept pushing on with his music career. During quarantine, he wrote and recorded the mixtape Apolonio, which was distributed through Warner Records. Across the nine eclectic tracks, he flexed his versatility. Apollo gave the balladry of Mexican corridos a heartfelt spin in "Dos Uno Nueve" and touched a little on his relationships with boys in trap-tinged "Bi Friend." In October, Apollo obtained a co-sign from Prince's estate, which selected him to be the initial artist to perform at the late pop icon’s former house, Paisley Park.


To entertain fans who were stuck at residence, Paisley Park opened its gates to Apollo, who channeled the late pop icon while in a sexy efficiency that was streamed live. In a deep purple suit that bared his chest, he gyrated across the stage. "That was tight," Apollo recalls. "We were there for a couple weeks plus it felt like camp because I was just rehearsing there and getting ready for that show."


Soon after years of generating buzz with bombastic single releases and sold-out live shows, Apollo recorded an album that was initially set to drop last year. In the process, he was paired with producers and other artists with whom he didn’t immediately connect, and thus he felt the resulting LP wasn't true to his vision or who he was as a person. He scrapped it and began over from scratch.


"I just wasn't excited about the music," Apollo says. "I made this whole first album. It was cool, however it wasn't what I wanted to perform. It was sort piece of the process [of getting to Ivory]."


"That was a dream come true," Apollo says about working with the Neptunes. "Pharrell's the perfect and we got along super well. I can't wait to prepare more shit with him."


Apollo is feeling himself while in Ivory. Its title is "a metaphor for a bond or trust," he says, referring to the material’s strong durability. While in the album, Apollo coos about romance and erotic trysts in fiercely personalized lyrics, unafraid to use male pronouns any time referring to his partner, whom he offers to sing to sleep in the title track. Apollo tries to win back his man in the sweeping "Evergreen" or describes his dream guy in otherworldly "Invincible" featuring Daniel Caesar. ("Latin boy, Frida Khalo brow," by the way.) The surreal music video for the latter features caricatures of two males embracing in love. While Apollo prefers not to publicly label his sexuality, he lets out his queerness in his songs and through his playful tweets to his fans on Twitter.


"It feels so good to be actually straightforward Apollo says. "The fact that I get these DMs, and these young kids and people my age are like, 'Thank you so much for saying what you mention and using pronouns the way you do,' it just makes me feel so good. There were several people, nevertheless I did not have anybody in the Latino community doing that any time As soon as I was a kid or growing up in high school. I was reading a DM last night as soon as somebody notified me that, and it's an affirmation for me that things are on the correct path."


Across Ivory, Apollo embraces all of the intersections of his identity, including his Mexican roots. Last November, he derived his first major nominations from the Latin Grammy Awards for his work with Spanish rapper C. Tangana. Their breezy teamwork "Te Olvidaste" was up for Best Option Song and Record of the Year. "It was my first time being embraced by any segment of the music industry," he recalls. Apollo sings totally in Spanish in the heartbreaking "En El Olvido," his sparse take on ranchera music, a genre traditionally rooted in life on the ranches in Mexico.


"It feels good [to sing in Spanish]," Apollo says. "It feels long overdue. I feel like I was just waiting to get a little bit more comfortable. Right now I can't stop. I was in the studio last night making some shit in Spanish."


Apollo recently kicked off his Desvelado World Tour where he's performing songs from his catalog up to this point. He promises the tour, which includes those two helps prevent at both weekends of Coachella, will be a safe space for fans. “There's going to be a lot of surprises and I'm excited," Apollo notes. "I'm certainly going to be dancing on stage, for sure. I miss it so much.” He’s also hard at work on a deluxe edition of Ivory. Surging while in the tracks is a refreshing confidence that he hopes is empowering for listeners, as it has been for him.


"I aspire to keep making music forever," he says. "I would just hope that people feel inspired. Even if you're inspired to get up, go outdoor, go to a show, sing a song, or pick up the guitar, whichever it may would be. That's the only thing you could hope for once it comes to releasing music."