SAX wins Vibe Session

His originality, believing spirit and aspiration have seen Tobi Gabriel, popularly known as SAX, become Vibe King in the second edition of the music talent show, Vibe Session, a competition organised by Kingsmen Entertainment.

The competition, which ran for 10 weeks, had participants send a song each to the entertainment company for selection. The number was reduced to 10 participants, who moved to the next stage of the show and got their songs uploaded on the YouTube platform. A participant with the most organic likes emerges the winner.

Speaking with The Guardian, the 22-year-old said he has been into music since he was little.

According to him, his sound, work and passion since the first day he applied to contest helped him to beat other contestants.

“I knew I was going to be the winner. I do music full time. I am also a songwriter, pianist, saxophonist and music producer. Winning this competition means a lot for my career; this is a stepping stone for me, because it means I can win more. This is also a drive to do more. So, I am grateful to Kingsmen Entertainment for giving me the platform,” he said.

Speaking on the motivation to organise the show for the second time, Founder, Kingsmen Entertainment, Jolomi Omamuli, said: “The first outing was a raw concept and we are sustaining the platform to give more talents the opportunity to grow. Competitions like The Voice are very complex to get into, they want to help people, but it’s almost like a governorship campaign to get the opportunity to be on their platforms. So, we make this more accessible to the everyday aspiring artiste.

“We will continue to grow this platform; we will be kicking off the third round soon. We want to do up to four rounds yearly and we are moving away from YouTube. We are launching an app dedicated to the platform and, in addition, we have guest producers coming on, so, from the app, aspiring artistes will have access to original beats from recognised hit makers and they can get the beats for free to perform their songs.”

Speaking on why the firm will continue with the show, Co-Founder, Kingsmen Entertainment, Akin Onitiri, said: “The aim was to get aspiring artistes out there and give them a platform to showcase their talent. We are hoping to produce the next Davido, Wizkid and other big stars, and have a platform where people will follow them and support them. We are trying to achieve this organically without them knowing someone before getting on the platform.

“We make films, so, this is just to empower artistes. We may decide to do a record label later, but it’s not on our agenda now.”

Speaking on the challenges, he said: “The first challenge was how to get past bathroom singers, people who just send anything, people who are not passionate about the craft but motivated by money.

“The second challenge was getting rid of robotic likes. Another challenge is with the people who do not believe in what we are doing. One of the contestants in the maiden edition told us that we don’t have any money because he was disqualified for buying likes. In this round, someone said he has N3 million for video and that he has more money than all of us and we should get out with the N250,000 cash price for the competition.”