Omar Apollo is in a back room of a Van Nuys soundstage, taking a break from filming the music video for “Done With You,” a track from his sophomore album, “God Said No,” released June 28 via Warner Records. Dressed in a neutral-colored striped shirt and baggy jeans, he leans back in a chair and stretches his arms behind his head. A pair of sparkling diamond earrings adorn his ears.
“To describe this era, I would say it’s quite glamorous,” Apollo said.
Following her first Grammy nomination last year for her debut album, “Ivory,” Apollo has been living a charmed life. She has posed as a model for fashion campaigns and attended Paris Fashion Week. In May, Apollo walked the cream-and-moss carpet at the Met Gala, wearing an outfit she described as based on “Just vibrations.” His presence at the exclusive event sparked a viral moment after Apollo posted an X-rated video showing his father running inside the family home in Hobart, Indiana, into the living room after being told his son was on the TV screen. On the wall above the TV, we see a crucifix interspersed with two platinum plaques with songs on them. The video has been viewed more than 3.8 million times.
“My parents are a very important part of my life,” Apollo said. “I love them so much. When people tell me I’m honest, I feel like they’re just complimenting my parents because I get all the good things from them.”
Apollo’s self-proclaimed era of glamour has also brought the singer into the art world. Last October, Apollo hosted an immersive listening experience at MoMA PS1 for “Live for Me,” an EP that delves deeper into his coming out experience. The ticketed event featured two nude paintings of Apollo by queer artist Doron Langberg; both were featured on the front and back covers of the EP.
Over the years, Apollo has publicly acknowledged his homosexuality as his career has progressed. Although his music has always hinted at his sexual orientation (when The Times asked him four years ago how he identified, Apollo saying“I'm Just Chilling”: It wasn't until 2022 that he sang candidly about being in love with another man. The song, “Evergreen (You Didn't Deserve Me at All),” also proved to be his biggest hit to date, peaking at No. 51 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
“It made me trust my intuition more,” he said of the song’s success. Since then, Apollo has been more open about who he is and what inspires him.
(Jill Connelly/For The)
“I love Peter Hujar, David Wojnarowicz and all those photographers from the '80s, during the AIDS epidemic. I think nudity is beautiful,” Apollo said, adding that Langberg's paintings were inspired by a photograph Hujar made of his subject masturbating.
“It was an amazing experience. I wanted to do it for myself,” he said. “It was a crazy year for me. Being 26 was something I wanted to remember.”
Like the paintings, “God Said No” captures a slice of Apollo’s life at that age (he turned 27 in May). The album was recorded while he was going through a breakup, and it chronicles the dissolution of that relationship in real time. On the intense groove of “Less of You,” Apollo sings about his ex growing apart. On the soulful funk of “Done With You,” his voice flails as he struggles to move on. The LP’s title works as an acknowledgement that it wasn’t meant to be: Apollo shared that it came out of a conversation he had in the studio with a friend after opening up about his situation.
“My friend said to me, ‘God told you no,’” Apollo recalls. “I thought, ‘Wow, that really ties the album together. ’ After every song, you can say, ‘God told you no. ’ I believe in a higher divine power, and I believe that sometimes you have to accept colossal loss.”
Drawing on his bilingual upbringing, Apollo also processed the pain of his breakup in Spanglish. Though much of his music is in English, he has flaunted his Mexicanness here and there. On his 2020 mixtape “Apolonio,” Apollo showed off his corrido chops with “Dos Uno Nueve (219),” a swaggering ode to his hometown (the number refers to the area code for northwest Indiana). On “Ivory,” he channeled his inner Juan Gabriel on the haunting “En el Olvido.” On “God Said No,” Spanish is hidden in the heartbreaking ballad “Empty.” Midway through the song, Apollo sings, “Singing in another language so you don’t understand me / I don’t want you to know how much it hurts me.”
“On that particular song I was exhausted from love,” he said.
“I was tired of writing about the same situation, the same person, love in general. I was sick of it. I was sick of being understood and I thought, ‘Well, he doesn’t speak Spanish, so let me write this in Spanish. ’ It made sense. That felt authentic and genuine to me. It felt so right.”
(Jill Connelly/For The)
One of the people Apollo leaned on during the recording of the album was Pedro Pascal. The Chilean-American actor even makes a cameo on the album: he contributed to the interlude “Pedro,” in which he opens up about a painful time in his life. While they bonded in the recording studio, Apollo said he spoke with Pascal about possibly pursuing acting in the future.
“That would be great. I'll do it! We've been friends for a while,” Apollo said.
“He was there throughout the whole process of creating that album. We get along really well. We have a great friendship. I really just like working with my friends.” [Sudanese Canadian poet] Mustafa is the only contributor on this album. He is my best friend. I keep him in the circle.”
Next week, Apollo will embark on an ambitious world tour to promote “God Said No,” which will kick off in Australia and make a stop at the Hollywood Bowl on Oct. 5. If he spent 26 days in the studio, he’ll spend 27 in front of his fans, something he seems to enjoy. He describes the joy he felt at a “God Said No” listening party held the night before this interview.
“There were a lot of queer Chicano kids and that made me really happy,” she said with a laugh, recalling one encounter with one fan in particular.
“This guy had me as his phone wallpaper. He wanted to take a picture with me and then he covered his phone with his hand. I was like, ‘You don’t have to cover it. It’s okay. You’re safe here.’ It was really sweet because I used to have people that I love as my wallpaper. It’s really sweet to be able to be a kind of light source for the queer community, especially in the Latinx community.”
Lucas Villa is a Mexican-American journalist covering pop and Latin music. He has written for Allure, Elle, Rolling Stone, Billboard, Paper Magazine, Vibe, and LGBTQ Nation.
