ONE year after emerging as the winning band of the 2011 edition of Star Quest, Nigeria’s first and only band-based music competition, The Beat has finally unveiled its debut album.

The album, titled ‘Da Beat Goes On’ was officially presented to the public at a popular Lagos hangout, The Place, with an impressive list of music personalities in attendance.

The 10 tracker album, which contains songs like Oyoyo, How You Make Me Feel, Kolobi, Nkechiyem, among others, was produced by some prominent names in the Nigerian music industry including Paul Play Dairo, Del B, Phat E, Dekumzy and F.B. Rex.

The BEAT’s performance of some of the band’s songs re-affirmed why they were the audience’s favourite that amassed the highest number of votes to emerge the winning band on Saturday, May 7, 2011. The video of one of the album’s songs, Oyoyo, was also officially revealed on the occasion.

Speaking on behalf of the band, Sammie Tochux, the band leader and bass player, described the album as “the dawn of a new era” in the band’s fledgling life. According to him, “If you followed our participation in Star Quest last year, you will see that we have had an amazing journey to come to this stage and we are happy to have finally come out with the album. The truth is that, this album is the fulfillment of a dream and it is the dawn of a new era for The Beat.”
He expressed gratitude to Nigerian Breweries Plc, organisers of Star Quest, for coming up with the talent hunt competition. Tochux also

called on aspiring bands to seize the Star Quest platform in order to break into the music industry. “We can’t say thank you enough to Nigerian Breweries Plc for the company’s support and love. Without Star Quest, we would probably still be struggling on our own, but today we are able to launch this album just because of the platform that Star Quest has given us,” he stated.

Beauty Aghedo, one of the band’s three female vocalists expressed optimism of a very positive response from the band’s fans and music lovers.

She also added that the album would justify the faith that Nigerian Breweries Plc had reposed in the band. Aghedo remarked, “We tried to ensure that the album cuts across several genres of music. We have Soul, R & B, Naija contemporary and other genres of music.