AMATEUR NIGHT AT THE APOLLO

Amateur Night’s history begins with Ralph Cooper, an actor and producer, who started the original Harlem Amateur Hour in April 1933 at Frank Schiffman’s Lafayette Theater.  In 1934, Cooper began the Wednesday Amateur Night at Sidney Cohen and Morris Sussman’s 125th Street Apollo Theatre. Cooper’s Amateur Night in Harlem radio shows were broadcast live from the Apollo over WMCA and carried on a national network of 21 stations. When Amateur Night at the Apollo debuted in 1934, it quickly became the leading showcase for many young, talented, new performers such as a 15-year-old Ella Fitzgerald, who went on to become one of the first Amateur Night winners.

Amateur Night at the Apollo has since become the quintessential talent competition, serving as the model for Star Search and American Idol. The show marries world-class talent with a distinctive, vaudeville-like atmosphere, and has depended on audience participation since the very beginning. This popularity contest has proven an effective measure of star potential, becoming a launch pad for some of the nation’s greatest entertainers.

The showcase has played a major role  in the emergence of innovative musical genres including jazz, swing, bebop, R&B, gospel, blues, soul, and hip-hop, and works to cultivate aspiring performers in their artistic evolution as entertainers while creating access to professional performance and recording opportunities. Many Amateur Night performers have gone on to perform live opening acts at music concerts for professional artists like Nancy Wilson, George Clinton, and Cameo. Others have performed on America’s Got Talent, Good Day New York, and other local and network television shows. The legendary Apollo has launched the careers of icons such as Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, James Brown, Sarah Vaughan, Dionne Warwick, Luther Vandross, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Lauryn Hill, D’Angelo, and H.E.R., and continues to maintain its position as the nation’s most popular arena for emerging and established African-American performers.

In recent years, the Apollo has increased its global reach by bringing Amateur Night to audiences around the world with international editions in England and Japan, as well as livestream broadcasts that can be viewed by audiences from all corners of the globe.