{"id":4678,"date":"2022-12-31T18:40:28","date_gmt":"2022-12-31T23:40:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/read.streamapse.com\/?p=4678"},"modified":"2022-12-31T18:40:28","modified_gmt":"2022-12-31T23:40:28","slug":"omar-apollo-hopeful-heart-on-sleeve-rb-from-the-up-next-star","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/?p=4678","title":{"rendered":"Omar Apollo “Hopeful, Heart-On-Sleeve R&B From The Up Next Star"},"content":{"rendered":"

After signing a record deal with Warner Records, his debut album, Ivory, was released in 2022 to positive reviews for his vocal performance and the incorporation of Contemporary R&B with Pop music, earning him a Grammy Award for Best New Artist nomination at the 65th Annual Grammy Awards. Apollo sings in both English and Spanish.<\/p>\n

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Stream Ivory<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Omar Apollo seems all but destined for global stardom\u2014a stylish, self-assured heartthrob with a soul-stirring voice and clear artistic vision. But his music is far from the standard, nondescript pop fare; it\u2019s acutely personal and specific, a love letter to his Mexican American heritage and small-town roots.<\/p>\n

Growing up in Hobart, Indiana, as the child of Mexican immigrants (his parents came to the US from Guadalajara), Apollo took ballet folkl\u00f3rico classes, sang in Spanish mass at church, and listened to folk songs by Mexican musicians like Vicente Fern\u00e1ndez and Juan Gabriel. (The latter\u2019s influence can be heard on tracks like \u201cEn El Olvido,\u201d which Apollo wrote after watching videos of Gabriel\u2019s performances.)<\/p>\n

The album\u2019s striking cover art\u2014an aesthetic he developed with Alberto Bustamante, a queer architect and DJ based in Mexico City, where Apollo fine-tuned many of these songs\u2014is a tribute to telenovela actors from the 1950s. Perhaps it\u2019s no surprise, then, that many of the bilingual singer\u2019s early fans came from the Latinx diaspora.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I first started doing shows, it was literally all Latina girls,\u201d he tells Apple Music, adding that people would commend him for representing the Mexican American community. \u201cIt made me feel like, \u2018Wow, this is bigger than just [me and my parents], me being first generation. It meant a lot.\u201d Like Apollo, most of the songs on Ivory are a melding of sounds and influences; there\u2019s flirty, psychedelic R&B (\u201cKilling Me\u201d); nostalgic, hazy indie pop (\u201cWaiting On You\u201d); and trendy Latin trap (\u201cTamagotchi\u201d).<\/p>\n

SEE OMAR APOLLO<\/strong><\/span><\/em> LIVE\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

He\u2019s an artist who appears to bask in complexity, and his style is a study in contrasts\u2014guarded but affectionate, detached yet aching, a mix of electronic textures and bared soul. \u201cInvincible,\u201d a standout duet with fellow Up Next alum Daniel Caesar, is simultaneously romantic and remote, a poetic plea for connection sung from a distance. With choir-like harmonies, digital drums, rap interludes, and strumming guitar, it feels like the album\u2019s creative centerpiece, and asks delicate questions about visibility and queer love. \u201cIf I were to go\/Tell me, would you notice me?\u201d he asks his love interests, who are both male and female. \u201cI\u2019m not invincible.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After signing a record deal with Warner Records, his debut album, Ivory, was released in 2022 to positive reviews for his vocal performance and the incorporation of Contemporary R&B with Pop music, earning him a Grammy Award for Best New Artist nomination at the 65th Annual Grammy Awards. Apollo sings in both English and Spanish. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4681,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","category-streamapse-reports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4678\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}