Founder of Mobo awards Kanya King passes away: Cause of death & more

The founder of the Mobo Awards has just passed away at the age of 57 due to colon cancer.

The news comes via the Mobo Organization which revealed that she died sometime on Wednesday, after “a courageous and characteristically determined battle” with the disease.

The statement also said, “he music world has lost one of its most fearless champions. What Kanya created was never simply an awards ceremony.”

The statement also goes on to say, “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.”

For those unversed with her life and legacy, she was a TV researcher and saw a major gap during her lifetime, one that saw a lack of celebration being offered to Black musicians and therefore the Mobo awards came to life.

During its inaugural ceremony she even managed to get Carlton Television (then London franchise holder for ITV) on board to run its awardshow, thereby offering the winners like Goldie and Gabrielle an audience of sizable size in Britain.