As part of our celebration of African Heritage Month, the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic is pleased to welcome the amazing recording artist Keonte Beals.
Keonté Beals – the young but wisely talented R&B/POP artist, singer-songwriter and piano player, has made a big splash in Nova Scotia’s music scene. Multi-award winner, Keonte’s future is unfolding to be a bright one.
Keonté Shamar Beals was born and raised in North Preston Nova Scotia, started singing at the age of 7. Since finding a passion in singing, at the age of 16 Keonté had his first solo in his home church Saint Thomas Baptist Church in North Preston, NS. This particular solo opened up many opportunities to sing at other churches and church events all around Halifax that generated great buzz about the young singer.
Keonte’s career began June 14th 2014 after releasing a cover version of the song “I’m here” from the popular movie soundtrack of “The Color Purple.” This cover spread quickly, generating even more buzz about the singer who was now 17 and scored him his first two award nominations/wins. The cover song grabbed the attention of Prismatic Arts Festival director Shahin Sayadi who gave Keonté a platform to showcase on the main stage at the festival, thus opening up even greater opportunities.
Keonté has achieved a great deal in just two professional years in the industry. A multi-award winning artist including Music Nova Scotia’s Inspirational Recording of the Year 2016 award winner, ANSMA Rising Star of the Year Award Winner 2016, ESSO Festivals Fan Choice award 2016, ANSMA’s Emerging artist of the Year award 2015 and one of the three 2014 award recipients of the Partnership of Hope Award presented by CHAMA. On May 30th, 2016, Keonté released his debut single #ManDown which went on to snag him three Music Nova Scotia award nominations.
For additional information:
Richard MacMichael
(902) 424-8897
macmicrs@gov.ns.ca
