MOBO Awards founder Kanya King dies
The CEO and founder battled colon cancer
MOBO Awards founder Kanya King dies
The formidable founder’s passing was announced by her platform on social media.
STORY BY MELISSA SIGODO
JUNE 5, 2026
MOBO Awards founder Kanya King has died aged 57.
The CEO who had remortgaged her home to create one of the UK’s leading music honours fought a battle with colon cancer.
In 1996, she launched the annual British music award ceremony to celebrate music of Black origin despite being told “Black music was too niche.”
Nearly 30 years later, Kanya partnered with pub and brewing company Greene King to open a live music venue House of MOBO in South London.
The year before, she had shared her stage four bowel cancer diagnosis on Instagram and used her story to raise awareness and save lives.
Now, MOBO has announced that their founder who was awarded a CBE in 2018 for services to music and culture, passed away peacefully on June 3, 2026, “surrounded by her family, close friends and love.”
The statement shared by MOBO on Instagram read:
“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.”
The tribute added that Kanya was had been told that “Black music was too niche” and “that there was no market” for it, but instead she used people’s doubts to build her legacy.
The statement read: “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, Kano, Amy Winehouse, Sade, Krept & Konan, So Solid Crew, 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.”