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Mobo Awards Founder Kanya King Dies at 57 After Cancer Battle
The 2026 MOBO Awards will be dedicated to her memory as tributes pour in from artists including Craig David, Stormzy and Alesha Dixon.
- On Wednesday, June 3, 2026, Kanya King CBE, founder and CEO of the MOBO Organisation, died at 57 following a courageous battle with colon cancer, her family and organization confirmed on Friday.
- Thirty years ago, King remortgaged her home alone to launch the MOBO Awards, defying industry claims that Black music was too niche and lacked a market.
- The awards show championed artists including Stormzy, Sade, and Amy Winehouse, becoming a national institution, while King received a CBE in the 2018 Queen's Birthday Honours List.
- Celebrities including Alesha Dixon and Craig David paid emotional tributes, and the MOBO Organisation announced the 2026 MOBO Awards will be dedicated entirely to King's memory.
- Her family stated King leaves behind thirty years of "joy, of resistance, of proof" that one woman with vision and nerve can move an entire culture.
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MOBO Awards founder and cultural pioneer Kanya King dies aged 57
MOBO Awards founder Kanya King championed Black musicians' contribution to British culture and funded the first Music Of Black Origin awards in 1996. Heartfelt tributes have been posted, remembering her as a "visionary" and "a pioneer" who "changed the face of culture and music.”
·France
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Total News Sources61
Leaning Left8Leaning Right2Center29Last UpdatedBias Distribution74% Center
Bias Distribution
- 74% of the sources are Center
74% Center
L 21%
C 74%
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