MOBO Awards: From Goldie and Soul II Soul to Stormzy and Little Simz – a look back at 25 years of a game-changing ceremony
As the MOBO Awards celebrate the milestone of turning 25, founder and chief executive Kanya King has told Sky News her focus is on “doubling down” to ensure the music industry is providing opportunities on and off stage for people of all ethnicities and classes.
“You are now starting to see directors and chair people, just formidable people of colour who are trailblazing and changing things,” she says. “Of course there’s still much more that needs to be done but for us now it’s about doubling down. It’s about not only providing the opportunities front of stage but also behind the scenes.”
The MOBOs celebrate and elevate black music in the UK, playing a pivotal role in supporting the growth of black British music internationally and championing homegrown talent – frequently championing artists who have later gone on to sell millions, including some of the biggest names in rap, hip-hop, RnB, soul, grime, drill, gospel, jazz, reggae, garage, drum and bass and beyond.
King pictured with Idris Elba. Pic: MOBO Organisation
Grime superstar Stormzy is among those who credit the MOBOs as being hugely influential in his career, having told King that seeing hip-hop duo Krept & Konan perform at the ceremony was the reason he quit his job to follow his dreams.
“I think his sister used to go to school with one of them and they were unsigned at the time but we’d given them a platform, and he was incredibly inspired and felt like he too could do it,” she says.
Back in 1996, at the very first ceremony, Goldie’s groundbreaking drum & bass debut Timeless won the award for best album and, less than two months after Tupac Shakur‘s fatal shooting, the rapper was posthumously awarded the prize for best video for his track, California Love.
Mixing alongside the music stars and celebrities that night was then leader of the opposition Tony Blair, an unexpected guest to the sit-down dinner. He had been invited by King, but she admits they hadn’t counted on him being able to find time to join them.
Pic: MOBO Organisation
The turn-out, according to the MOBO chief executive, was incredible, but few knew that night how King – back then a young TV researcher and single mum – had, against the wishes of her mum, remortgaged her house to fund the ceremony at London’s Connaught Rooms.
“I was just told, look, there’s not a need for it and black music doesn’t sell,” she says. “You know, no one will get behind it. It’s too risky, you know, you’re wasting your time.”
Motivated out of frustration that the black artists she loved were being overlooked, King was determined.
“People said we shouldn’t use the word ‘black’ but for me it was something to be proud of and be celebrated. I wanted to see more voices, more representation out there because there were no stories being told.”
Jazzie B, the founder of the music collective Soul II Soul, remembers the night well. His band had just returned to the UK after winning a string of awards in the US. The music producer – who picked up MOBO’s award for outstanding contribution to black music – remembers being puzzled by how little recognition they were receiving in the UK at the time.
Jazzie B performing in 2020. Pic: AP
“Not receiving anything from home, it did seem rather odd,” he tells Sky News. “But we were often misunderstood… a lot of the British press didn’t realise we were from the UK.”
Speaking about King, he adds: “This wonderful lady turns up out of the blue… and it was delightful to receive that award on home turf.”
Since that first event, the MOBO Awards has championed hundreds of musicians and singers. Following a break in 2018 and 2019, the ceremony returned in 2020, honouring artists including Headie One and Mahalia. In 2021, Dave and recently announced Mercury Prize winner Little Simz were among the acts who took prizes home.
According to Jazzie B, the major role that King has played in bringing black music and culture into the mainstream cannot be overstated.
“This was a woman of colour honouring people of colour and that made a big difference in terms of, you know, raising us all up,” he says.
“The fact that this was a woman who had the power, the strength – I think [she] very much has led the way for a lot of our sisters, mothers and grandmothers. Just to show, look, perseverance works.
“What was interesting at the time was there was no black people behind the scenes unless they were receptionists or security. From that point of view, it was difficult. What Kanya did was she raised our community… we honoured our own but I think Kanya more felt this was something that needed to be a little more exposed, a bit more mainstream. That was at the beginning of a lot of change.”
The MOBO Awards comes full circle, returning to London for its 25th anniversary celebration next month, taking place at the OVO Arena Wembley on 30 November. It will be live-streamed on MOBO’s YouTube channel with a highlights special due to air on BBC One
Coach tickets to Glastonbury 2025 were sold out in half an hour, organisers have said, as they roll out a new booking system for festivalgoers.
They were the first group of tickets to be sold for the world-famous festival in Somerset, which is set to take place between 25 and 29 June.
This year, fans navigated a new system to buy the tickets as they were “randomly assigned a place in a queue” instead of having to refresh the holding page once they went live.
The organisers said in a post on X: “The Glastonbury 2025 tickets + coach travel which were on sale this evening have now all been sold.
“Our thanks to everyone who bought one.”
They added that National Express services would be available to bring festivalgoers from across the country to Glastonbury.
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Standard tickets will go on sale on Sunday at 9am. Last year they were sold out within an hour.
See Tickets said in a post on X that “confirmation emails are going out now to everyone who got @Glastonbury coach tickets this evening”.
Tickets for the annual event at Worthy Farm in Somerset cost £373.50 plus a £5 booking fee, and are sold exclusively through the See Tickets website, with no third-party sellers involved.
The new ticket system has changed the way people join the booking system.
Organisers previously warned hopefuls to log in “at least a few minutes” before the sale opened today and to avoid refreshing the page.
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Festivalgoers were also told not to attempt to game the system by using multiple devices.
The sale follows chaos earlier this year when tickets for the Oasis reunion went on sale, seeing a multitude of disappointed fans as well as those who felt cheated after being charged hundreds of pounds more for their tickets than was originally advertised.
Anyone wishing to buy tickets for Glastonbury must have registered by 11 November, a rule in place to avoid touting.
Entertainment
Christmas adverts – the 10 most-anticipated ads as the festive battle for customers commences
With just under six weeks to go to Christmas Day, the countdown has officially begun, with all the big brands rolling out their seasonal adverts.
Becoming something of an institution over recent years, many see the festive ads as the starting pistol for their Christmas preparation/panic, despite us only being halfway through November.
And with an estimated £10.5bn spent on this year’s Xmas ads, it’s not just about inducing a fuzzy warm feeling in viewers, but also about encouraging them to put their hand in their pocket.
As we brace ourselves for festive fun, we take a swift look at this year’s bevvy of commercial offerings, as the annual battle of the Christmas adverts begins.
John Lewis
A girl called Sally falls into a clothes rack reminiscent of CS Lewis’s The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe, but instead of finding Narnia, she ends up in John Lewis.
Pic: PA
Through family flashbacks we lean how much she loves her older sister, whose gift she has carelessly left it to the last minute to buy. Spoiler alert – as one would expect in an advert for a retailer, she finds a pressie.
With the retailer famous for its use of cover versions in their Christmas ads, this one is the origin story for a new cover, with a concurrent competition on TikTok to find an aspiring artist to rerecord a version, which will be featured on the Christmas Day airing and released by record label BMG too.
Waitrose
Marketed as a whodunnit – this big-budget production has a host of celebrity cameos, an intricate storyline and not one but two parts.
Pic: Waitrose
Comedian Joe Wilkinson, Fleabag star Sian Clifford and Succession’s Matthew Macfadyen all have a role in the ensemble, revolving around hunting down the thief of a “chilled desert”.
Being Christmas, when tensions are traditionally high, everyone has reason to have scoffed it. The culprit won’t be revealed until the second part of the ad is released, but in the meantime, activity at Kings Cross Station, in stores and on social media is set to keep the investigation very much alive.
Sainsbury’s
Sainsbury’s goes big for its advert, calling on a beloved Roald Dahl character – the BFG, or Big Friendly Giant – to travel the country with a supermarket worker called Sophie (who pleasingly is a real store employee) in the search for the perfect festive treats.
Pic: Sainsbury’s
A CGI BFG procures salmon, sprouts and cheese before a bit of magic helps him whip it all up into a feast, which he then gifts to an unsuspecting family through the window.
The first ones to release their ad earlier this month, the dulcet tones of national treasure Stephen Fry wrap the action, with a call to arms to stock up in readiness for Christmas.
M&S
Another national treasure – Dawn French – is back for this one, playing both herself and a festive fairy, who gives both French and her home a make-over ready for a Christmas soiree.
Pic: PA
French, whose multi-Christmas-dinner eating antics on The Vicar Of Dibley put her into the Xmas annals, is transformed into “the quintessential hostess” with a bit of help from her little friend.
Banking on the idea that you can never have enough of a good thing, there are six instalments of the advert running between now and the New Year. Who doesn’t like a second – or sixth – helping.
Lidl
This one pulls on the heartstrings, with a little girl inspired to give a gift to a boy who appears not to have any, after an old lady gives her some magic bells.
Pic: Lidl
Directed by Oscar-winning filmmaker Tom Hooper (he directed The King’s Speech), a CGI racoon and giant gingerbread man add a little action to events around the dinner table.
But the take home message is to think about giving as well as receiving, with the return of the retailer’s toy banks scheme set up at supermarkets with the aim of donating over 100,000 toys, to ensure no child experiences a giftless Christmas.
Aldi
Kevin the Carrot is back for a ninth year running, this time trying to save the Christmas spirit from a bunch of hard-boiled humbug villains.
Pic: Aldi
With the ad narrated by actor Jim Broadbent, our plucky hero braves an oven, a Mission Impossible-inspired ventilation system and Bond-esque snow jet-ski dash across the mountains, all to save Christmas.
Helped by his wife Katie, he of course pulls it off. A fan favourite, soft toys of the root vegetable are sold in stores, and this year cuddly humbugs are on sale too.
Morrisons
It’s a song and dance number from Morrisons, courtesy of their singing oven gloves performing Bugsy Malone’s You Give A Little Love.
Pic: Morrisons
A choir of 26 Morrisons employees gave voice to the gloves, recording their rendition of the song at the iconic Abbey Road Studios in London.
Like Lidl, the retailer pulled out the directing big guns, hiring The Greatest Showman director Michael Gracey to oversee proceedings.
Asda
Bagging the prize for the most gnome puns in one advert, Asda sees a flash mob of gnomes preparing the store for Christmas.
Pic: Asda
The resulting advert isn’t as irritating as it sounds on paper, thanks to nice performances by the two human characters in the ad – Maggie and Bill.
And as we know, Christmas is all about the merchandise, so the supermarkets are of course selling special Xmas versions of their garden gnomes to accompany their already 50-strong gnome range. Who knew?
Tesco
Tesco reminds us of those members of the family who are no longer here to join us on the big day, with a man carrying on his late grandmother’s festive tradition of baking gingerbread.
Pic: Tesco
He becomes obsessed with the spicy treat, as it infiltrates every part of his day from his haircut to a trip to see the Christmas lights.
He eventually gets together with his grandad to bake a gingerbread house, revealing it to the family at lunch, thus keeping the tradition alive.
Greggs
And in the most unlikely festive cameo of the year, Greggs has enlisted Nigella Lawson to star in its first Christmas ad.
Pic: PA
Rapturously endorsing their festive bakes, Lawson has her hands full of pasties, and her table full of take-away coffees, as she promotes the bakery’s festive-themed fare.
Whether or not you believe the 64-year-old TV chef really tucks into their sausage rolls in real life – the attention-grabbing collaboration looks like a wise move for the chain, whose sales have jumped in recent weeks as it continues its UK expansion.
Entertainment
Paul Mescal says being the star of Gladiator II as it premieres in London is ‘absolutely, wildly overwhelming’
Gladiator II star Paul Mescal has said bringing Sir Ridley Scott’s legacy sequel to the big screen has been a “wildly… overwhelming” experience.
The star was speaking to Sky News on the red carpet at the film’s royal premiere which was attended by His Majesty the King, who had earlier hosted members of the film and TV industry at a Buckingham Palace reception.
When asked about making the move from indie films, like All Of Us Strangers and Aftersun, into one of the most eagerly anticipated films this year, Mescal said: “I’m excited to play with what the audience is expecting of me.”
“The royal audience is one thing… I think we’ve seen how an audience responded to the film, royal or not, and I think we’re excited for people to see it.”
A whole 24 years after Sir Ridley Scott’s Roman blockbuster starring Russell Crowe, Mescal plays Lucius who, much like the original, finds himself trying to win back his freedom after powerful emperors of Rome conquer his home.
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The King greets stars at film and TV event
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With an actual-scale model of the Colosseum built for the production, the film comes with high costs and a lot of hype.
“I’m struggling with words at the moment,” Mescal admitted, taking in the occasion, having come from the champagne reception at Buckingham Palace.
“This has been an absolutely, wildly – I keep using the word overwhelming – but I think if this isn’t slightly overwhelming then I don’t know what the hell is. I’m having a great time.”
Sir Ridley explained his reason for casting Mescal was that he saw aspects of “a young Albert Finney” in him.
While the pressure is on for the sequel to do well at the box office, the director said he’s learnt how to deal with the weight of expectations over the years.
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“Any film of [this] scale, it doesn’t matter how we play it down, it’s colossally stressful. You better embrace stress or don’t do the job.”
Before heading to the premiere, the King welcomed directors, actors, TV presenters, stunt performers and costume designers at the palace to mark the centenary of the Film and TV Charity, of which Charles has become patron.
Sir Ridley, actor Joseph Fiennes, actress India Amarteifio from the hit Netflix show Queen Charlotte, and TV presenter Claudia Winkleman were among the celebrities who attended the event.
Gladiator II is in cinemas on 15 November.
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