Grammy nominee Omar Apollo “started from zero” on YouTube

The 65th annual Grammy Awards are this Sunday, and one nominee learned his craft thanks to YouTube.

Twenty-five-year-old Omar Apollo, who just released his debut album Ivory in April 2022, is one of 10 acts nominated for best new artist at the 2023 Grammys.

Apollo told NPR he didn’t start making music until he was 17–and when he did get started, he had no idea what genre he wanted to get into, let alone what basic instrumental and vocal skills he needed to acquire.

“I always knew I wanted to sing, I just wasn’t good yet,” he said. He told the outlet he solved that problem by surfing YouTube for videos of singers who had natural vibrato and studying those singers until he could mimic the effect with his own voice.

He did the same sort of mimicking to learn guitar: He’d find videos of skilled guitar players and study their finger placements and movements.

“That’s literally what I do, start from zero,” he said. “Nobody wants to start from zero.”

Starting from zero ended up working out pretty well for Apollo, though. After putting his self-produced song “Ugotme” on Spotify in 2017, he was picked up by the platform’s “Fresh Finds” playlist and started building an audience. He went on to release two EPs, the self-produced Stereo in 2018 and AWAL-produced Friends in 2019, before signing with Warner and releasing 16-track Ivory in 2022.

Now he’s up for best new artist alongside fellow nominees Anitta, Domi and JD Beck, Muni Long, Samara Joy, Latto, Måneskin, Tobe Nwigwe, Molly Tuttle, and Wet Leg.

The 2023 Grammys air Feb. 5 at 8 p.m. Eastern.