Honored with TikTok’s Future Icon award at Variety‘s Hitmakers brunch on Dec. 3 for his trend-inspiring power ballad “Evergreen (You Didn’t Deserve Me At All),” Omar Apollo made the most of his acceptance speech. The alternative-R&B singer told the audience — which included the likes of Dua Lipa, Selena Gomez, Jack Harlow — a short anecdote because, as he bragged, “I’m an above average storyteller.”
The Mexican American singer proceeded to describe how ironic it was that he had achieved the mark of Future Icon, as he had struggled with the concept of the future for much of his adolescent years. “I remember when I was in high school, I was really obsessed with the future and I remember when I first started singing I was like, ‘Just wait till I hit puberty, it’s gonna go crazy,’” he said, prompting the room to break out in laughter.
“At the end of high school… it was really exciting. We were we were all gonna start applying for colleges, and I was really pumped… so I applied to as many schools as I [could],” he explained. “I didn’t get accepted into any of the colleges that I applied for, but there was one college in particular that I was really upset about.”
Apollo wasted no time contemplating whether to name drop, adding that it was Columbia College in Chicago who rejected his application.
“It’s an art school, and I wanted to make music, I wanted to sing, I wanted to produce music and I was really looking forward to it,” he explained. “I was thinking that was the next step I needed to take, and I was really upset because the acceptance rate to this school was 93%. I was like, ‘There’s no way I’m the 7%. It just can’t be.’”
In response, the then 18 year-old Apollo called the school’s administrator to find a loophole in the decision but was ultimately turned away due to poor test scores and a “terrible” essay.
“It’s funny to be recognized as a Future Icon because there was a point in time, in my young life, where I didn’t think I had a future,” he concluded. “I never thought of myself in that way but honestly… we here, thank you so much.”
Apollo’s “Evergreen” found a second life on TikTok some four months — and two tours — after it had been released in April as part of the Indiana-born singer’s “Ivory” album. The trend started with one fan angrily belting the song’s tear-jerking bridge (“You know you really made me hate myself / Had to stop before I break myself / Should’ve broke it off to date myself / You didn’t deserve me at all”) and, the song has since soundtracked more than 380,000 videos and racked up billions of video views.
Variety‘s 2022 Hitmakers brunch was held at City Market Social House in Downtown Los Angeles on Dec. 3 and celebrated the year’s best songs and the industry’s top execs, artists and creatives.
