ROLLING STONE’S
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ROLLING STONEOmar Apollo
WO YEARS AGO, Omar Apollo sat down with his guitar and laptop
in the attic where he was living in small-town Indiana. Soon, he’d
recorded “Ugotme,” a two-minute marvel of achingly tender R&B.
A friend persuaded him to upload the track to Spotify, and mil-
lions of streams later, the 22-year-old son of immigrants from Guadalajara, Mexico,
has become a DIY pop auteur, churning out lovelorn songs that reconcile the sultry
sounds of D’Angelo and Prince with Mexican soul and traditional corridos.
Born Omar Velasco, the singer started out by learning guitar via YouTube. He
says that being self-taught gave him the freedom to experiment. “I was just able to
be like, ‘Oh, what happens if I move one finger here and one finger here?’ ” he says.
He traces the intense emotion in his work to his family background. “I think it’s
just Mexicans being mad dramatic,” he jokes. “My mom, as soon as she watches
her novelas, she starts turning into that.... I’m like, ‘Ma, I know you’re just acting
like this because you just saw La Rosa de Guadalupe or something.’ “
Growing up, Apollo had trouble finding role models from his own culture, but
now he’s inspiring a new generation. “Some of my little Mexican homies that I met
at church, they hit me up on Instagram,” he says. “They’re like, ‘Bro, I just got a
guitar.’ It just makes me so happy.” JON BLISTEINT
HOMETOWN Hobart, Indiana
SOUNDS LIKE A Mexican American kid
on an epic Prince bingeRYAN PFLUGER