Emmanuel Garilus was crowned the winner of the 2025 Amateur Night at the Apollo musical competition. With a saxophone performance of “I Will Always Love You” by Whitney Houston, Garilus won $20,000, a studio session at Coke Studios L.A. Live and the hearts of the audience.
WUFT sat down with Garilus to talk about what got him into music and his experience winning the award.
This Q&A has been edited for clarity.
Borman: What got you into playing saxophone?
Garilus: It's a funny story. When I was about 11 or 12 years old, I was sitting in church one day, and there was a guy with a funny blue suit, a funny-looking hat, who got on the stage and played his heart out. That inspired me. That moment really stuck with me and inspired me to learn the sax. The very next year, I joined the band. I was in middle school and I was going into eighth grade, so the band teacher wouldn’t let me play the sax that year because he said you have to start on clarinet first. So I started on clarinet, and then the following year in high school, I started playing the saxophone.
Borman: What was competing at the Amateur Night at the Apollo competition finale night like?
Garilus: Man, that moment; I'll never forget it. Before I even got on the stage, everyone in the back was freaking out. If you know anything about the Apollo, the crowd can get very rowdy – very, very rowdy. They can start to rattle you if you show any sign of fear; they'll go after you. There was another contestant who got booed off early on. That's the nature of the Apollo; you can get booed off of it if you're not good, and the crowd will let you know very early. When she got back there, everyone started freaking out because you don't know if you're going to get booed off. Backstage, everyone was doing their ritual to get ready, and I'm like, “Alright, we've done the preliminary rounds, the semifinals, the quarterfinals, and now we're here at the grand finale. It's time to go out there and have fun.” I went out there and played my heart out. The crowd was really into it; they loved it, they enjoyed it.
Afterward, everyone has to line up. The way they score is they'll call your name, you step forward and the crowd will cheer, and there's a meter to see, like where you end up on a meter. The very first person got like a 90 out of 100, which is very high. I'm like, “Wow, because when I was in the semifinals, I ended up with a 91, which was the highest I've ever gotten. This is going to be a tough one!’’ Lo and behold, when I stepped forward, everyone cheered up. It was probably the loudest I've ever heard; I got a 96 and ended up winning the grand finale. It was such a surreal moment. I'll never forget it.
Borman: How does that feel to be representing Gainesville?
Garilus: It feels amazing representing Gainesville. I've lived here for seven years, so I really got to know the people. I really got to know the city. The city loved me, especially even the government; they're inviting me to play at different events. It's been nice, it's been very nice to represent the city and the University of Florida.
Borman: What was Coke Studios L.A. Live like?
Garilus: L.A. really lives up to the hype. I think it’s a great city; it's a beautiful city. The place was amazing, and being there at Coke Studio L.A. Live was just surreal. You're working with a Grammy-nominated producer, Rob Rettberg, who is a good friend of mine now. Working on my track, producing it, giving him ideas and him giving me ideas. I really enjoyed it. I look forward to being back again. Now, having a whole song produced, it’s been great. Any musician would love something like that. Just to have that under my belt now, it's an amazing feeling. I'm grateful to Coke Studio and the Apollo Theater for making all of that happen.
Borman: What can you tell me about your new single coming out?
Garilus: Earlier this year, I spent about six months in this program called Arts Fellowship Orlando. In this program, you look at the intersection between art and faith. We took six months going in-depth learning about the different aspects of art, but also the different aspects of the Christian faith. Part of that was to create an original body of work, so it was six professional artists working on this piece. During this fellowship, I developed a song that I started before. It's called, “My King,” and the words of the melody actually state “all the glory, all the honor, all the praise belong to you, my King.” It was a love song to God. The song came during a time of meditation, so it was like an offering back to God. It's a beautiful, beautiful song. The producer thought, “Wow, this is amazing,” so we had to get it on the radio somewhere. It was developed in six months, from January to June. I got to perform it at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts in Orlando. Then, when I was talking to the executives at Coke Studio, we were talking about what the day would look like in the studio and what song we would work on, and they're like, “Well, because of licensing issues, we have to work on an original,” and it just so happened that I just finished working on my original song. Now, I got the chance to record it.
Borman: How did you turn a hobby into a profession?
A: I've never seen it as a hobby. Even when I was in college, I was still doing it at a high level. After college, when I was working a bit, I realized that if I really want to be really good at this, I have to put in the hours, and there's no way to do this with a full-time job. I really took the time and focused on the skills; there's no way to get good at anything if you don't put the time and attention on it. I'm now seeing the fruits of my labor.
Music is something that, if you take it seriously and put in the time, you just never know where it will take you. Putting out your work like I do a lot on social media has also helped a lot in terms of getting clients. Especially if you're taking the time to learn your craft, be sure to put it out so others can enjoy it. You just don't know what might happen.