Matt Thomas

Content and business dude

[Matt Thomas @contentmatt]

@superphil123 @BBCNews Except it wasn't black only was it? MOBO gave awards to many white artists...

[Matt Thomas @contentmatt]

@Alex_tokyo10 @MOBOAwards Wow, bet so many people will mourn your passing.
But anyway... let's start with ALL the other awards? But you do realise MOBO championed and gave awards to white artists, too? You don't do you?

[Matt Thomas @contentmatt]

@pumpkinpiemusic 1) Educate yourself and show some respect. Someone lost their life 2) The MOBOs and Kanya are anthesis of division. 3) The MOBOs championed, supported and gave awards to white artists too 4) Bowie would detest everything you stand for - change your handle

[Matt Thomas @contentmatt]

@GeordieWat25 You know white artists won MOBOs, right?

[Matt Thomas @contentmatt]

@KarenSquires18 @BBCNews Are you thick? That doesn't even make sense.

[Matt Thomas @contentmatt]

@HadrianAD122 Are you thick?

[Matt Thomas @contentmatt]

@craiganjos89485 @DailyMail Explain how MOBO or Kanya did that... sounds like you've zero idea what you're on about. Created nothing but unity.

[Matt Thomas @contentmatt]

@craiganjos89485 @DailyMail WTAF are you even on about? Show some respect.

[Matt Thomas @contentmatt]

@issacc_hunt @OneBut83093 "Never argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience."

[Matt Thomas @contentmatt]

What a woman. What a life. What a legacy.

Absolute pleasure to have interviewed her a journalist then got to know her a little as a person and see the joy she gave.

Taken shockingly too soon but also know she passed with a lot of special people loving her.

[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.

[Matt Thomas @contentmatt]

@issacc_hunt @OneBut83093 I literally just told you...

[Matt Thomas @contentmatt]

@issacc_hunt @OneBut83093 But they don't... that's factually incorrect. The MOBOs celebrates white artists, too. It's music of black origin... not black artists. And yes I see colour - I couldn't be anti-racist if I didn't.

[Matt Thomas @contentmatt]

@issacc_hunt @OneBut83093 The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) defines racism as prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race, typically based on the belief that one's own race is superior. How is MOBO doing that?

[Matt Thomas @contentmatt]

@issacc_hunt @OneBut83093 Looks like you've run out of words now, bless. So I'll leave you to it.

[Matt Thomas @contentmatt]

@issacc_hunt @OneBut83093 This hardly explains how starting a programme celebrating music of black origin - which also champions white artists - makes you a 'racist', does it? By definition of the word was Kanya that. Or why you'd choose to say something like that upon the announcement of their passing.

[Matt Thomas @contentmatt]

@issacc_hunt @BBCNews You’ve already done that for me… go on, explain ‘racist’?

[Matt Thomas @contentmatt]

@FredSma02166500 @BBCLondonNews Thick as… literally can’t even reason. Pity you. 😘

[Matt Thomas @contentmatt]

@issacc_hunt @BBCNews Ohh you charmer. Go on, explain the racism. Bet you can’t. Thick.

[Matt Thomas @contentmatt]

@FredSma02166500 @BBCLondonNews And… a person who touched and changed many lives, leaving a huge legacy sadly lost her battle with cancer. Don’t care, don’t comment. But how about some respect?

[Matt Thomas @contentmatt]

@Barnsey17443311 @BBCLondonNews Yes. White artists won MOBOs too. Educate yourself and show some respect.

[Matt Thomas @contentmatt]

@issacc_hunt @BBCNews Bigot embarrasses himself. Educate yourself and show some respect.