Mexican-American and queer singer-songwriter omarapollo is not afraid to wear his heart on his sleeve with debut album Ivory
." In October, Apollo received a co-sign from Prince's estate, which selected him to be the first artist to perform at the late pop icon’s former home, Paisley Park.
To entertain fans who were stuck at home, Paisley Park opened its gates to Apollo, who channeled the late pop icon during a sexy performance 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 and it felt like camp because I was just rehearsing there and getting ready for that show.
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 so he felt the resulting LP wasn't true to his vision or who he was as a person. He scrapped it and started over from scratch.
"I just wasn't excited about the music," Apollo says."I made this whole first album. It was cool, but it wasn't what I wanted to perform. It was kind of part of the process [of getting to"That was a dream come true," Apollo says about working with the Neptunes."Pharrell's the best and we got along super well. I can't wait to make more shit with him.".
"It feels so good to be actually honest," 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 say and using pronouns the way you do,' it just makes me feel so good. There were a few people, but I didn't have anybody in the Latino community doing that when I was a kid or growing up in high school.