The Mexican-American musician – and expressive dancer – has amassed a doting fanbase for his songs of same-sex love and unrequited longing
When he self-released Ugotme, a sultry R&B love song with echoes of D’Angelo, Omar Apollo was so broke he had to ask a friend to lend him the $30 registration fee to get his track on Spotify. “I still have a little screenshot of him sending me money. It says, ‘Investing in your future’,” he laughs.
In the subsequent half-decade, Apollo has accrued a dedicated fanbase in thrall to music filled with unrequited feelings, youthful insecurities and the odd moment of affected cockiness. Typical for his generation, he flits between genres: his music riffs on 1980s Quincy Jones productions, Prince, Parliament and the charged psych-soul of Frank Ocean. On his debut album Ivory, he also draws from the folksy palette of Laurel Canyon, 1990s alt-rock and pop titans such as Post Malone, and has collaborated with producers such as Pharrell Williams, who worked on latest single, Tamagotchi, a Latin-edged track with hard trap beats and bags of braggadocio.