The MOBO Awards | |
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Country | United Kingdom |
First awarded | 1996 |
Official website | www |
Television/Radio coverage | |
Network |
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The MOBO Awards stands for "Music of Black Origin" and was established in 1996 by Kanya King and Andy Ruffell. The MOBO Award show is held annually in the United Kingdom to recognise artists of any ethnicity or nationality performing black music. In 2009, the awards ceremony was held in Glasgow for the first time. Prior to that, it had been held in London. In 2011, the ceremony returned to Scotland for a second time. The awards then moved to Leeds for 2015.
The Music Of Black Origin (MOBO) Awards were established in 1996 to recognise and celebrate artists who create Black or urban music. The MOBOs may be the most prestigious but were not the first Black music awards show in the country. In Britain, the Black Music Awards (BMA) show ran from 1992 to 1996 in various venues in London. For non-music shows, the Afro Hair and Beauty show was set up by Dyke and Dryden beauty company in 1982, and is still an annual event in London.
The first MOBO award was presented to UK trio Baby D, in the Best Dance Act category. The MOBO Awards are seen as a UK equivalent to the BET Awards and Soul Train Awards for being the main award show in Britain to focus on Urban music.
The ceremony was first broadcast regionally on ITV and produced by Carlton Television from 1996 to 1997 before moving to Channel 4 (aired nationwide) from 1998 until 2003. Since 2004 the awards have been broadcast by the BBC, and in 2006 the show was aired live for the first time in its history on BBC Three, and repeated two days later on BBC One. Highlight shows were broadcast on BBC One in a late-night timeslot.
In 2014, the awards show moved to ITV2 in a three-year partnership contract due to the BBC launching its own pop music awards. A full repeat is broadcast later the same evening on the main ITV channel.