Stars including Mahalia and Max Cyrus have paid tribute to music entrepreneur Jamal Edwards – someone who “turned on the light in the room” for others to shine.
Along with the YouTube star’s mother Brenda, they spoke to Sky News at the Music Industry Trusts Award (MITS) 2022 ceremony – at which he became the first recipient of the prize to be honoured posthumously.
Edwards, a YouTube star who helped launch the careers of artists including Ed Sheeran, Dave, Rita Ora and Jessie J, died suddenly at home in Acton, west London, in February at the age of 31.
Speaking as she was due to accept the prestigious MITS prize on her son’s behalf, for his outstanding contribution to the industry, Ms Edwards said he had been a “voice of calm” to many in the entertainment industry and beyond.
“I just wish I had that voice around me a bit more now,” she said.
Music stars including Jorja Smith, Little Simz, Mahalia and Cyrus were on the bill performing at the ceremony held in Edwards’ memory, as he joined previous winners including Kylie Minogue, Pete Tong, Sir Elton John and Annie Lennox.
Attending with her daughter Tanisha – both wearing blue as a nod to Chelsea FC, the club Edwards supported – Ms Edwards told Sky News: “I’m very proud to be receiving this award on behalf of Jamal. Very sad, obviously. I still haven’t come to terms with it, in a way of… he’s gone, I’m still on the ‘he’s here’.
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“I have so many conversations with so many people talking about him in the present and I think that brings me quite a bit of joy because it shows that his legacy is still alive and what he wanted to achieve is still going.”
Born in Luton before moving to west London as a child, Edwards grew up on a council estate and went on to be appointed an MBE for services to music as well as an ambassador for the Prince’s Trust, which helps young people set up their own businesses.
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His online urban music platform SBTV helped dozens of UK artists rise to prominence over the years.
At the MITS ceremony, he was remembered for his championing of young artists, but also for his work with good causes including mental health and homelessness charities.
“That was so important, he put it down into his last wishes that I continue what he’s doing and focus on mental health and wellbeing and young people, and focus on helping the homeless,” Ms Edwards said.
“Those were both things that he championed from a very, very young age. And he would go every single year at Christmas to help out in a homeless shelter for young people.”
Ms Edwards, a singer who appeared on X Factor and is also a panellist on Loose Women, said her son was a “behind the scenes person and was very shy”, but after his death people wanted to learn about the man who helped kickstart “all these amazing careers”.
She added: “I’m very proud of that, and the determination that he had and the tenacity that he had. And for him, the word wasn’t impossible. It was ‘I’m possible’. And I hold on to that all the time…
“I’m very proud of what he achieved. And I’m hoping that with us continuing the legacy that other young people will see: ‘I can achieve it’. If you just believe it, you can.”
‘He turned on the light in the room for others to shine’
MOBO winner Mahalia, who was helped by Edwards when she was 12, told Sky News: “I think being from Leicester, trying to penetrate an industry that is kind of solely based in London felt pretty impossible…
“I remember meeting Jamal and just saying to him, ‘can I sing for you?’ and him saying, ‘yeah’. At that point he was really kind of having a moment in the music industry, and for him to give me just a couple minutes of his time… I think is really telling of the kind of guy he was.
“It was him that gave me my first YouTube debut. I think he is and was an incredible man. I think people particularly coming through right now can learn a lot from him, to be honest.”
Cyrus, the musician and producer, who had worked with Edwards, described him as “a phenomenal human being with a great heart”.
He added: “Far too often we sometimes forget about the people who open the doors for others… he [turned] on the light in the room for others to have a light shone on them.”
After his death, his mother warned others of the dangers of taking recreational drugs, saying in a statement: “Jamal is proof that this can happen to anyone. His passing has shown that one bad decision on any one occasion can lead to devastating consequences.”
Hollywood celebrities are among thousands of people to have been evacuated from their homes as fires rip through areas of Los Angeles.
Sky News’ US correspondent Martha Kelner reported that Tom Hanks, Ben Affleck and Reese Witherspoon were all evacuated on Tuesday as wildfires continued to spread in the Pacific Palisades suburb of LA.
The area, which is home to billionaires as well as Hollywood A-listers, is located between Santa Monica and Malibu.
Other celebrities who have fled their homes include the award-winning actor James Woods, who said last night he had been safely evacuated from his home in Pacific Palisades.
But he added in a post on X: “I do not know at this moment if our home is still standing.”
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Actor Mark Hamill, best known for playing Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars films, also posted on social media last night saying he evacuated his home in Malibu and his family were “fleeing for our lives”.
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This Is Us actress Mandy Moore was also forced to leave her home due to the fires.
She said in two Instagram stories she had fled the Eaton fire, which is raging near Altadena, with her children, cats and dog. They have found temporary refuge with friends.
The actress said: “Trying to shield the kids from the immense sadness and worry I feel.
“Praying for everyone in our beautiful city. So gutted for the destruction and loss. Don’t know if our place made it.”
According to Velvet Ropes, which maps celebrity properties, Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson, Matt Damon, Steven Spielberg, Hilary Swank and Sally Field all have homes close to where fires are raging.
Dr Dre, Adam Brody and Leighton Meester, Tyra Banks, Martin Short, Anna Faris, Milo Ventimiglia, Linda Cardellini, Mary McDonnell, Adam Sandler, Miles Teller, and Jennifer Love Hewitt are also said to have houses in affected areas.
In neighbouring Malibu, which was also affected by fires in December, stars including Beyonce and Jay-Z, Kim Kardashian, Lady Gaga and Billie Eilish are said to be among the celebrity residents.
The Palisades blaze has already burnt through more than 11,000 acres of land while the Eaton one has caused the death of two people, Los Angeles County fire chief Anthony Marrone said on Wednesday.
The two other fires are known as Woodley and Hurst, after the main areas affected.
All four blazes are still growing, Mr Marrone said.
A reality TV personality known for appearing on shows like The Hills and Made In Chelsea has told Sky News her family have lost their homes in the California wildfires.
Stephanie Pratt, a model and the sister of fellow reality TV celebrity Spencer Pratt, lives in the Pacific Palisades in Los Angeles, where more than 30,000 people have fled their homes due to the fast-moving blaze.
Los Angeles fire chief Anthony Marrone said on Wednesday that the Palisades fire is still growing and that “well over 5,000 acres” have been burnt.
At least two people have been killed so far, with around 1,000 buildings destroyed.
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House surrounded by flames during wildfire
California governor Gavin Newsom earlier declared a state of emergency over the four wildfires in the south of the state.
Speaking to Sky News from London, an emotional Ms Pratt said: “It’s just so crazy, I had no idea what was happening.
“I talked to my dad yesterday and he said ‘The Palisades is burning’. He said that he was at my brother’s house on Chautauqua [Boulevard] and they were just watching the flames come.
“The firefighters came and said you got to leave.”
‘I don’t know if my house is there’
Ms Pratt said her parents and brother Spencer, who like her starred in the reality series The Hills, were safely evacuated from the area.
However, the 38-year-old added that “all of the phones are disconnected” and that she doesn’t know what had happened to her home.
“I talked to my neighbour last night and she told me that [Palisades Charter High School] had burnt down, and that’s directly behind me, and so had Gelson’s Supermarket which is adjacent,” she said.
“I just can’t reach anyone to see if my house is okay. I just Googled it and it said that it’s destroyed and terrible… I don’t know if my house is there.”
When she asked her dad about Spencer, 41, who is married to 38-year-old Heidi Montag – another co-star of The Hills – Ms Pratt said he told her “I’ve never seen him like this”.
“I’m assuming he’s just completely catatonic,” she added. “We don’t care about the material things or anything like that, but this was their family home.
“This is where they raised their two little kids.”
The Palisades fire is one of five blazes currently burning in southern California– evacuation orders were in place on Tuesday in Altadena after another fire, called the Eaton fire, started near a nature preserve.
A third blaze, called the Hurst fire, also ripped through Sylmar in the north of the city.
And according to the state department Cal Fire, two more blazes – the Woodley fire in Los Angeles and Tyler fire in Riverside – broke out on Wednesday.
Two School Of Rock co-stars, who met at the age of 10, have got married.
Caitlin Hale and Angelo Massagli, who played Marta and Frankie respectively in the 2003 classic alongside Jack Black, tied the knot in New York on Saturday.
The couple brought some of the original cast of the film, which centres on a pretend substitute teacher turning a group of musically gifted school children into a rock band, together to celebrate their nuptials.
Posting on Instagram, Hale, 33, shared various images of the day, including a photobooth picture with a handful of their former cast mates.
The former actress, who now works as a sonographer, wrote under the post: “Special thank you to everyone who contributed to an unforgettable day!”
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Rivkah Reyes, who played bass player Katie in the film, also posted about the wedding, sharing a video on TikTok.
The clip, set to Stevie Nicks’s Edge Of Seventeen, included cameos from Brian Falduto, who played Billy, Joey Gaydos Jr, who played Zack, and Aleisha Allen, who played Alicia, among others.
The use of the song was a nod to one of the scenes from the film where Black and Joan Cusack, who plays headteacher Rosalie Mullins, sing the song in a bar.
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“Celebrating the marriage of Caitlin & Angelo with my forever fam #schoolofrock #wedding,” Reyes wrote alongside the video, which showed them all dancing together.
After appearing together in the film the only contact Hale and Massagli had was through a WhatsApp chat set up with the entire cast, according to The New York Times.
The pair then both left show business and coincidentally reconnected while studying in schools in Florida.
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Massagli, 32, who now works as a lawyer for TikTok, according to The Times, told the paper the familiarity they both had due to working together when they were younger “cut through some of those early relationship hurdles”.