by Rachel Ogbu//

Kanya King, founder of the prestigious MOBO Awards has been speaking on diversity at the Brits Awards particularly this year’s BRIT.

The Ghanaian Irish entrepreneur writes: “MOBO has been working towards greater inclusivity since we first started in 1996 and since then the landscape has changed beyond all recognition. When we launched we were the only event of this kind in Europe, and little was expected of us. We made a very tiny budget go a long way, and went from strength to strength,although it has been far from easy journey, demonstrating the scale of the market that the mainstream industry had been missing… To such an extent that now there’s tons going on! Digital has obviously played a massive part with the rise of platforms like GRM Daily and LinkUp TV.

“Every year MOBO identifies and celebrates around 70 nominees, for many of whom this is their first major TV platform and the start of a successful journey towards mainstream acceptance from awards such as Mercury and the BRITs. For many aspiring artists MOBO is the first dream, the first hurdle to overcome and the first step onto the ladder of success. We’re very proud of our place in the creative industry ecosystem: at the forefront of discovering that talent and shining a light on it for the rest of the industry to follow.” 

“Given all this change, occasionally we’re asked why it’s still important for the MOBO Awards to exist as a separate event or whether music of black origin should be absorbed into other more mainstream awards ceremonies.”

The MOBO Awards hold a unique and important place in the music industry – we have it on good authority from many of the artists currently nominated for BRITs that MOBO gave them the inspiration and confidence to work hard and go for it, as well as the platform to be seen for the first time by audiences of millions. For example BRITs Best Breakthrough nominee Stormzy said” “When Krept&Konan won their first MOBO – they are from my area – I thought… I’m having a go as well…”until eventually, “I’m a child of Grime, so for me to go and win the first ever Grime category for the MOBOs…that’s just an honour.”

Kanya King said: “Since the #BRITsSoWhite controversy last year, there has been much discussion around the measures that have been taken to address it“.

“It’s rewarding to see the number of MOBO winners and nominees now up for their first BRITs, including Craig David, Emeli Sandé, Stormzy, Kano and Skepta,” King added.

Always an innovator, Kanya sees obstacles as opportunities and has had a lot of practice at persuading people to come around to her way of thinking. The youngest girl of nine children born to a Ghanaian father and Irish mother, Kanya grew up in a crowded council flat in Kilburn, North London in notably less enlightened times.

Having started contributing to the family finances at age 17, she was driven to study English Literature at Goldsmiths College and later, while working as a TV researcher, Kanya saw the glaring gap in the market for a mainstream British awards ceremony celebrating music influenced and inspired by black music.

In 1999, Kanya was presented with an MBE and has further been acclaimed as one of London’s Most Influential People (Evening Standard), one of Britain’s Most Entrepreneurial Women (Real Business) and one of Britain’s Most Influential Black People (Thomson Reuters/JP Morgan Power List).

Kanya King co-founded ‘DanceStar’ – the global dance music awards platform – a concept developed across three continents.