MOBOs founder Kanya King dies after colon cancer battle: “Rest in power”

MOBO Awards founder Kanya King has died after a battle with colon cancer.

In a statement, the MOBO Organisation said that King, who revealed her cancer diagnosis in December 2024, passed away “surrounded by her family, close friends and love”.

King founded the MOBOs, an annual awards to celebrate music of Black origin, in 1996. It has since become one of the UK’s most celebrated and respected accolades, with previous winners including the likes of Stormzy, Olivia Dean and the late Amy Winehouse.

She was born to to a Ghanaian father and Irish mother in north London and working as a TV researcher in 1996 when she saw the gap for an awards ceremony to celebrate Black British musicians who were often overlooked by other eventS.

King remortgaged her house to fund the first MOBOs in 1996, transforming it into an arena-filling spectacle which has seen performances from the likes of Olivia Dean and Stormzy in recent years.

“The music world has lost one of its most fearless champions,” a statement read.

“Thirty years ago, Kanya King remortgaged her home, alone, without institutional backing, without industry support, to build a stage that would transform British music forever. 

“She was a single mother from a Kilburn council estate who was told that Black music was too niche, that there was no market and that the industry was not interested. Instead of arguing, she built. Six weeks later, the first MOBO Awards was broadcast to the nation, and nothing was ever the same again.

“What Kanya created was never simply an awards ceremony. It was an act of cultural justice. MOBO did not just celebrate Black music; it legitimised it, amplified it, and demonstrated its commercial and creative power to a world that had too often chosen not to see it. Olivia Dean, Stormzy, Little Simz, RAYE, Craig David, Soul II Soul, Ms. Dynamite, So Solid Crew, Krept & Konan, Kano, Amy Winehouse, Sade, Central Cee and more. Every artist who has stood on the MOBO stage since 1996, every door that opened, every opportunity that followed, and every ceiling that was shattered carries the imprint of Kanya King’s vision.”

The statement went on: “She built a platform that has reached hundreds of millions of people around the world. She was awarded a CBE and received an Ivors Academy Honour in 2025, accepting it, characteristically, in the middle of what she described as “a difficult week health-wise”, yet still managing to inspire every person in the room. She never stopped. She never asked for permission. She never accepted that the word “no” was final.

“When she 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.’ That was Kanya King. Right to the very end.”

It added: “The world was a profoundly better place with Kanya King in it. The MOBO family is heartbroken, but also endlessly grateful, proud and inspired by everything she gave to music, culture and the generations who will follow in her footsteps. Rest in power, Kanya.”