MOBO Awards founder and CEO Kanya King CBE, an influential figure of the British Black music scene, died on Wednesday. She was 57. The cause of death was colon cancer.
A statement from the MOBO Awards said that King “was surrounded by her family, close friends and love” and lamented, “The music world has lost one of its most fearless champions.”
King founded the MOBO (Music of Black Origin) Awards 30 years ago. A single mother from a London council estate, she launched the ceremony with funds raised from re-mortgaging her home. Six weeks later, the first MOBO Awards was broadcast to the U.K.
The ceremony has helped take talent from the margins of British popular culture into the mainstream, elevating the careers of, among others, Olivia Dean, Stormzy, Little Simz, RAYE, Amy Winehouse, Sade, Central Cee, Soul II Soul, Craig David, Ms. Dynamite, So Solid Crew, Krept & Konan and Kano.
King was awarded a CBE in 2018 for her contributions to British music and culture. She received the Music Week Strat Award in 2021 and an Ivors Academy Honour in 2025.
When King stood on the MOBO stage in Newcastle in February 2025, just months after her diagnosis, she told the audience: “I never allowed someone to define my limits. Not in life. Not in business. And I’m certainly not going to have that happen now.”
Dr. Jo Twist OBE, CEO of U.K. trade org BPI, said: “Everyone who knew Kanya or who benefited from her incredible passion for music and the creative arts and from her fierce commitment to inclusivity and social justice will know just how much of an inspirational trailblazer she was.
She will always be remembered for this and for the wonderful legacy she leaves to British music and beyond, not least through the MOBO Awards and brand she founded and developed so brilliantly into a landmark platform for so many artists, and which will act as a lasting tribute to her many accomplishments.”
