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
Entertainment
Star of The Hills and Made In Chelsea says family’s homes have burnt down in LA wildfires
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
The flames burning down a home in Los Angeles. Pic: AP
Some of the damage after the wildfire. Pic: AP
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.”
Former Made In Chelsea star Stephanie Pratt speaking to Sky News
Map showing wildfires in California.
‘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.”
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Reality TV personality Stephanie Pratt in 2010. Pic: Reuters
‘This is where they raised their kids’
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.”
Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag at the MTV Video Music Awards in 2008. Pic: Reuters
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!”
Caitlin Hale (middle) with Maryam Hussan and Jack Black. Pic: Andrew Schwartz/Paramount/Scott Rudin Prods/Mfp/New Century/Sor Prods/Kobal/Shutterstock
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.
“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.
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”.
The couple got engaged in June 2023.
UK music sales hit a 20-year high of £2.4bn in 2024, helped by pop megastar Taylor Swift’s latest album, and driven by streaming and the vinyl revival, figures show.
Revenues from recorded music reached an all-time high, more even than at the peak of the CD era, according to annual figures from the digital entertainment and retail association ERA.
Total consumer spending on recorded music – both subscriptions and purchases – topped the previous record of £2.2bn in 2001, ERA said.
Noah Kahan performing during the Soundside Music Festival in September. Pic: AP
Takings from streaming services including Spotify, YouTube Music, and Amazon rose by 7.8% to a little over £2bn.
Almost £200m was spent on vinyl albums, an annual uplift of 10.5%, while CD album revenues were flat at just over £126m.
Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department was the biggest-selling album of the year, aided by her record-smashing worldwide Eras tour.
More than 783,000 copies were bought, nearly 112,000 of them on vinyl – making it 2024’s biggest-selling vinyl album.
The biggest single of the year was Noah Kahan’s Stick Season, generating the equivalent of 1.99 million sales.
ERA chief executive Kim Bayley said 2024 was “a banner year for music, with streaming and vinyl taking the sector to all-time-high records in both value and volume.
Ms Bayley called it the “stunning culmination of music’s comeback which has seen sales more than double since their low point in 2013. We can now say definitively – music is back.”
Despite the increasingly strong performance by the British music industry, artists are said to be receiving less money.
Experts have said the musicians make less than people would think because of the role of streaming – platforms do not normally pay artists directly and divide any owed payments among the rights holders of songs.
Music revenues grew by 7.4% in 2024, while video rose by 6.9%, and games fell by 4.4%, according to preliminary figures.
Subscriptions to Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV grew by 8.3% to £4.5bn – almost 90% of the sector’s revenues.
Deadpool & Wolverine was the biggest-selling title of the year, with sales of 561,917 – more than 80% of them sold digitally.
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Despite the games sector’s 4.4% decline last year, it remains nearly twice as large as the recorded music business.
Full game sales saw a drop-off with PC download-to-own down 5%, digital console games down 15% and boxed physical games down 35%, in favour of subscription models which grew by 12%.
EA Sports FC 25 – formerly known as Fifa was once again the biggest-selling game of the year, generating 2.9 million unit sales, 80% of them as digital formats.
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