OMAR APOLLO

MUSICIAN

After blending funk, soul, pop and R&B across three EPs, Apollo took listeners on a dreamy ride on his debut album. “Ivory” finds Apollo, an L.A. transplant by way of Indiana, stretching his talents while singing of his love for another man, largely crooning in English but also connecting on a traditional Mexican ballad in “En El Olvido.” The first edition of the album was scrapped, and Apollo had to postpone a scheduled tour this spring to finish the final version. If you want to know if it worked, just look to “Evergreen (You Didn’t Deserve Me at All),” a dusty ode to a broken love that went viral on TikTok and has since become his first Billboard Hot 100 hit. Still need more proof? Ask Tyler, the Creator, who loved the single “Tamagotchi” so much he hopped into Apollo’s DMs to bully him into giving the “banger” the promotion it deserved. — K.D.