Omar Apollo drops first single, 'Stayback', from his forthcoming debut album | NME

Omar Apollo has released his brand new single, ‘Stayback’, today (August 7).

Earlier this week Apollo took to Twitter to announce his forthcoming debut album, posting the single artwork for ‘Stayback’, which features its lyrics and its 2:38 minute runtime.

On the inspiration behind today’s new single, Apollo said in a press statement, “‘Stayback’ is a song about being in love for a long period of time. After years of being hurt emotionally, I moved on and decided to treat the relationship as a memory instead of fantasising it and trying to make it work.

“When I finished the production, I realised this was the song that I’ve been wanting to make my entire career. My guitar player Oscar killed the solo on it and really brought the whole thing together.”

‘Stayback’ has been released with an accompanying music video, which you watch below.

Apollo’s as-of-yet untitled debut album will follow his EPs, ‘Stereo’ and ‘Friends’, released in 2018 and 2019 respectively. It’s not yet clear whether his Kenny Beats collaboration from earlier this year, ‘Imagine U’, will make the album.

Late last year, the artist teamed up with Florida rapper Dominic Fike on their joint track ‘Hit Me Up’. This collaboration was also produced by Kenny Beats.

Apollo previously shared his own single ‘Frío’, which marked his first song to be sung entirely in Spanish.

NME named Apollo one its 100 essential new artists for 2020, labelling him “the 2020s’ answer to Prince”.

“[He has a] chameleon-like ability to transform into a funk-minded hybrid of Prince and David Bowie.”







The artist told NME last year that, for him, “making music is a spiritual thing, and not to sound corny, but it’s your subconscious feelings coming out of you”.

“I’ll be writing and it’ll be exactly what I’m feeling but I’m not thinking about it.”

‘Stayback’ by Omar Apollo is out now, buy/stream it here.

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