Lavinia's Blog: MOBO's

posted by: Lavinia Gyamfuah

Once again the MOBO’s have given its fans another award winning show packed with diverse urban talent. The MOBO’s is an annual award show that portrays music content from black origin for its spectators. This is the yearly opportunity where artists are acknowledged for their talent.

Kanya King is the CEO and founder of the MOBO awards. Her journey started in South London as an English and Drama student at Goldsmiths. The first MOBO show took placed at The Ministry Of Sound in January 1996. King funded her first show by re-mortgaging her house.

Media coverage from The Observer Newspaper and The London Tonight attracted attention from their opposition Carlton TV. Carlton TV provided the MOBO team with their first slot, this enabled the team to utilize their skills and aim to make the MOBO’s a success. They invited many acts to attend but a huge number declined, however, Kanya did not give up, she insisted to update them on the progress with confirmed acts. Eventually many acts reconsidered. Although they lost money on their first event they learnt what not to do at the next event.

Her main influences derive from her sister and friends.  Kanya’s sister began taking her to gigs at the age of 12 and most of Kanya’s friends were musicians. Kanya King felt that her taste in music was underrepresented and her inquisitive nature to respond to this created the MOBO’s. She started organising shows for undermined talent. Her objectives were to create a ‘washed audience’ from talented people and create desirable events that she would want to attend.

This is an exciting innovative invention supporting most established and upcoming artists. Fans travel from all across the world to support the acts and the MOBO’s. Musicians such as Jay-Z, LL Cool J, Usher, Tinie Tempah, Tinchy Stryder, Gigs, Professor Green and Devlin performed. For all those that missed that amazing event, catch the show on BBC’s iPlayer.