mlavontelle

Presenter & Producer.

[MOBO Awards @MOBOAwards]

It is with immeasurable sorrow that the MOBO Organisation announces the passing of its Founder and CEO, Kanya King CBE.

Kanya passed away peacefully on 3 June 2026 after a courageous and characteristically determined battle with colon cancer. She was surrounded by her family, close friends and love.

Thirty years ago, Kanya King remortgaged her home, alone, without institutional backing or 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 transformed the cultural landscape of the UK.

From Stormzy, Little Simz and RAYE to Craig David, Ms. Dynamite, Amy Winehouse, Central Cee and countless others, generations of artists have benefited from Kanya King's vision.

She built a platform that reached hundreds of millions of people around the world. She was awarded a CBE and received an Ivors Academy Honour in 2025. 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.

The 2026 MOBO Awards, held during the Organisation’s landmark 30th anniversary year, will be dedicated entirely to her memory.

The world was a profoundly better place with Kanya King in it. The MOBO family is heartbroken, but endlessly grateful, proud and inspired by everything she gave to music, culture and future generations.

Rest in power, Kanya.

You built this.

All of it.

[blue @bluewmist]

You need to be slowmaxxing. You need to be reading long, fat books. You need to be making 48-hour chocolate chip cookies. You need to spend hours watching wildlife, you need to spend 15+ min making your coffee. You need to breathe in and breathe out. You need to be slowwwwwwwwww.

[ɴᴀᴅɪ.🎀༘ @luvblessingz]

Apple needs to bring back the iPods. I just want peace and music. No notifications or phone calls.

[fahmeedx @fahmeedx]

you lowkey have to keep changing environments to stay inspired creatively

[Resko★ @Bloke_Baz]

What a privilege it is to afford a gym, buy healthy food, pay bills, have legs that walk, eyes that see, a brain that functions, work every day, and take our bodies to their full potential.

[Nicki Minaj @NICKIMINAJ]

We didn’t know it then but this was the golden age for a certain generation. Every song felt this big & magical.
The writers, producers, artists, labels, everyone took this genuine, unquantifiable energy for granted. It’s a lesson on appreciating what you have before it’s gone🎀

[mlavontelle @MLavontelle]

@Rulecounter @KeruboSk I can’t stress how painful this feels. Urgh

[Rhonda Phelps @Rulecounter]

@KeruboSk being with them in a dream only to wake up 🥹

[Clara @jjggukies_7]

Plot twist: peace starts when you stop rushing.

[Ali @AI1Ali]

You cannot leave the sauna before anyone who was already in there.

Pass out if need be.

[Noluthando @thandonoluxolo]

@kwaneIe_ iPhone storage is a scheme set up by Todd 😩

[Wale @Wale]

Dave X Kano thank u

[Qadi @Bigqadi]

We need a national day of silence. Too much talking going on these days

[Love Music @khnh80044]

A gentleman teaching Boys how to be Men ❤️

[Brampton Manor @BramptonManor1]

Congratulations to Daniel who achieved A*A*A* and who study biomedical sciences at the University of Oxford. #Alevel

[The Notorious J.O.V. @whotfisjovana]

this is so valid

[ღ @stfnigg]

Your whole life is for living.

[jude @judeblay]

People don’t let people off first on trains anymore in London and it truly disgusts me. No fucking manners.

[mlavontelle @MLavontelle]

The entertainment industry is simply in the gutter right now.

[ღ @stfnigg]

Giving people more grace because everyone has issues fr