Amateur Night at The Apollo Returns

On Wednesday, August 21, Amateur Night at The Apollo will return with a dynamic new slate of artists who will battle it out over the course of 38 shows in front of The Apollo’s notoriously tough “Be Good or Be Gone!” audience. The longest-running talent competition that has launched the careers of legendary stars like Ella Fitzgerald, Lauryn Hill, and H.E.R., Amateur Night at The Apollo will feature vocalists, rappers, dancers, instrumentalists, comedians, spoken-word artists, and other performers from around the globe.

Adult contestants will compete for the Amateur Night Grand Prize of $20,000 and the chance to join the ranks of legendary past performers like Fat Joe, Machine Gun Kelly, and Jazmine Sullivan, while contestants between the ages of 5 and 17 will compete for the title of “Child Star of Tomorrow” and a $5,000 prize.

This season, in a showcase of The Apollo brand’s global reach, The Apollo will relaunch its licensing partnership with Yoshimoto Kogyo Co., Ltd., the largest entertainment company in Japan, for the return of Amateur Night Japan!. Reinforcing the competition’s mission to find and amplify international talent, Amateur Night Japan! will showcase contestants from around Japan selected from online video submissions. The winner will receive a $10,000 prize and the chance to perform at the Amateur Night at The Apollo Grand Finale in New York City. Additionally, one contestant will win the chance to make their debut under Yoshimoto Kogyo and Universal Music’s joint label Yoshimoto Universal Tunes.

Since its inception in 1934, The Apollo’s signature talent competition Amateur Night at The Apollo has attracted audiences and contestants from around the globe and launched the careers of thousands of performers who are now some of the biggest names in entertainment. Amateur Night has long been revered by artists as a transformative experience where up-and-coming talent can feel the power of the legendary performers who have come before them, and where audience response can make or break a career.
Cruz Angel, winner of the 90th season of Amateur Night at The Apollo, exemplifies exactly how the competition has the power to shape a rising artist’s career – prior to competing on Amateur Night, the Puerto Rican-born singer struggled with homelessness while pursuing his dream of performing, sleeping in the New York city subway after hours of busking. Angel’s stellar performances throughout the competition charmed audiences and secured him the Amateur Night Grand Prize, the very same accolade that jump-started the careers of notable artists like Billie Holiday, Stevie Wonder, and the Jackson 5.

The Apollo will host in-person auditions for Amateur Night at The Apollo hopefuls to join this season on Saturday, September 14, on a first-come, first-served basis starting at 9 a.m. EST, seeing the first 200 performers who will vie for a coveted spot in the Amateur Night season.

Online audition submissions are accepted year-round at apollotheater.org/amateur-night.

Tickets for Amateur Night at The Apollo are on sale now at www.ApolloTheater.org.

The Apollo’s original, large-scale talent competition is produced by Marion J. Caffey, and is hosted by comedian Capone (NY Kings of Comedy, Def Comedy Jam) with perennial favorites including C.P. Lacey in the role of the “Executioner” (in charge of ushering off eliminated contestants); Greginald Spencer, the “Set It Off Man”; and Amateur Night’s longstanding famous house band led by music director, Michael Mitchell (MJ The Musical), featuring DaiQuan Davis on drums, Reggie Young on bass, and Matt Oestreicher on guitar and keyboard.

WHEN & WHERE
Season premiere: Wednesday, August 21, 7:30 p.m. EST, and every Wednesday until December 18, then returning every Wednesday from February 19 through the Grand Finale on June 25. In-person auditions: Saturday, September 14, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00p.m. EST.
The Apollo’s Historic Theater – 253 W. 125th Street between Frederick Douglass Blvd. and Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd.

TICKETS
Tickets for Amateur Night are available at www.ApolloTheater.org.

SUPPORT
The Apollo’s season is made possible by leadership support from Coca-Cola, Citi, Sherman Fairchild Foundation, Ford Foundation, Howard Gilman Foundation, the Jerome L. Greene Foundation, The New York Community Trust, and The Mellon Foundation. Amateur Night at The Apollo is sponsored by Coca-Cola.

Apollo Education Programs are made possible by generous support from BNY Mellon, Apollo EmpowHER, Steve and Connie Ballmer, ConEdison, The Walt Disney Company, William R. Kenan, Jr. Charitable Trust, The Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation, the Moore Charitable Foundation, The Neuberger Berman Foundation, The Pinkerton Foundation, Sony Global Justice Fund, and the Verizon Foundation.

Public support for The Apollo is provided by the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, with special support from New York City Council Members Julie Menin, Kristin Richardson Johnson, and Shaun Abreu.

ABOUT THE APOLLO
The legendary Apollo—the soul of American culture—plays a vital role in cultivating emerging artists and launching legends. Since its founding, The Apollo has served as a center of innovation and a creative catalyst for Harlem, the city of New York, and the world. In 2024, The Apollo opened The Apollo Stages at Victoria, which include two new theater spaces, and will begin the renovation of its Historic Theater, marking the first ever expansion and renovation of The Apollo in its 90-year history. For more information about The Apollo, visit www.ApolloTheater.org. Read more about the project here: www.apollotheater.org/renovation-restoration-and-transformation/

With music at its core, The Apollo’s programming extends to dance, theater, spoken word, and more. This includes the world premiere of the theatrical adaptation of Ta-Nehisi Coates’s Between the World and Me and the New York premiere of the opera We Shall Not Be Moved; special programs such as the blockbuster concert Bruno Mars Live at the Apollo; 100: The Apollo Celebrates Ella; and the annual Africa Now! Festival. The non-profit Apollo is a performing arts presenter, commissioner, and collaborator that also produces festivals, large-scale dance and musical works organized around a set of core initiatives that celebrate and extend The Apollo’s legacy through a contemporary lens, including the Women of the World (WOW) Festival as well as other multidisciplinary collaborations with partner organizations.

Since introducing the first Amateur Night at The Apollo contests in 1934, The Apollo has served as a testing ground for new artists working across a variety of art forms and has ushered in the emergence of many new musical genres—including jazz, swing, bebop, R&B, gospel, blues, soul, and hip-hop. Among the countless legendary performers who launched their careers at The Apollo are Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Billie Holiday, James Brown, Stevie Wonder, Gladys Knight, Luther Vandross, H.E.R. D’Angelo, Lauryn Hill, Jazmine Sullivan, Machine Gun Kelly, and Miri Ben Ari; and The Apollo’s forward-looking artistic vision continues to build on this legacy. For more information about The Apollo, visit www.ApolloTheater.org.