Omar Apollo

Omar Apollo Biography

Omar Apolonio Velasco (born May 20, 1997), known professionally as Omar Apollo, is a Mexican-American singer-songwriter from Hobart, Indiana. Apollo sings in both English and Spanish. He started his career by creating and uploading his songs to the DIY streaming platform SoundCloud. During this time, he worked at Jimmy John's and Guitar Center and lived in an attic. In 2017, using $30 borrowed from a friend, he uploaded his song "Ugotme" to Spotify, where it was soon playlisted on the platform's Fresh Finds and racked up 20,000 streams in a day. A year later, the song would cross more than 15 million streams. He released his first EP, Stereo in 2018, which was similarly well received. In 2018 and 2019 he went on two tours, the "Want Tour" and the "Voyager Tour". During the 32-date "Voyager Tour" he released his second EP, Friends, in April 2019. He went on his first European tour in 2019 as well, and played at Lollapalooza in August. In late 2019, Apollo released the singles "Frío" and "Hit Me Up", both collaborations with producer Kenny Beats. In April 2020, Apollo released the single "Imagine U", another collaboration with Kenny Beats, and on August 7, he released "Stayback", the lead single from what would come to be his first mixtape, Apolonio,. On September 10, he released the second single "Kamikaze". On September 25, Apollo appeared on alternative R&B Japanese-Australian singer Joji’s second album Nectar on the track "High Hopes". Apollo released "Dos Uno Nueve (219)" and "Want U Around" (with the last one featuring Ruel) before releasing Apolonio on October 16. In 2021, Omar released "Go Away" and "Bad Life", the first two singles from his debut studio album, Ivory. "Bad Life", which features Kali Uchis, marked the second time the singers collaborated together, with the first being "Hey Boy", from Apollo's first mixtape, Apolonio. In February 2022, Apollo released Invincible, the third single from Ivory, featuring Daniel Caesar, and announced the release date for his album. On the following months, he'd go to release "Killing Me" and "Tamagotchi", with the latter one being co-written and produced by The Neptunes. Ivory received mostly positive reviews with praises going towards Apollo's musical growth and vocal performance. The album entered the Billboard 200 chart, marking his first-ever entry on the chart. In September 2022, the track "Evergreen" went viral on TikTok which helped boost the song to enter the Spotify and Apple Music charts and eventually debut on Billboard Hot 100 at number 62 for the week ending of October 1, 2022, earning Apollo his first-ever entry on the chart. In response to the rising success, the song was chosen as the album's next single and was later sent to contemporary hit radios on October 4, 2022, making it his first-ever radio single. In 2022, Apollo also performed at Coachella and in early 2023, opened for SZA on her SOS Tour. In September 2023, Omar was honored with the Inspira Award at the 2023 Hispanic Heritage Awards. In October 6th, 2023, Omar released his third EP, Live For Me, which contains the single "Ice Slippin". Apollo is openly gay and has denied queerbaiting allegations, stating, 'It's not a choice, it's just what I am. (...) I'm totally aware of the privilege we have now to be ourselves and still have a career (...) people thought I was queerbaiting before. I wasn't super open about my sexuality, but people were hearing things. (...) It had a lot to do with me growing up in Indiana which is very conservative. I stopped putting pronouns in my music for a couple of years then I just realized, I can't let other people's opinions influence and dictate my life". In an interview in 2022, Apollo discussed the labeling of his sexuality, saying "I feel like in the beginning, (...) I was trying to keep the mystique. But I don't even care anymore (...) now I'm just like, I'm very gay". Growing up, he listened to his parents' favorite musicians such as Pedro Infante, Los Panchos and The Beatles. His own influences include diverse musicians such as Neil Young, John Mayer, Prince, Bootsy Collins, and The Internet. His parents gifted him a guitar when he was 12, but, unfortunately, it was an eletric guitar without an amp. He traded it for an acoustic guitar at a pawn shop and eventually learned how to play it by watching and mimicking YouTube cover videos. A newer guitar he’d bought later on got stolen when he was 15 and it took him a couple years to get a new one and get back into playing. He then also learned how to sing on YouTube, after receiving criticism on his voice from his dad and friends. Omar attended Indiana University Northwest, but dropped out two weeks in because he felt like he was supposed to be doing something else and wanted to focus on music.