MOBO Awards

The MOBO Awards
Current: MOBO Awards 2023
Awarded for	Excellence in music of black origin
Location	Various (in 2025, Newcastle)
Country	United Kingdom
Presented by	MOBO Organisation
First awarded	1996; 29 years ago (1996)
Website	www.mobo.com
Television/radio coverage
Network	Carlton Television (1996–1997) Channel 4 (1998–2003) BBC One (2004–2013, 2020–present) BBC Three (2006–2013) ITV2 and ITV (2014–2016) Channel 5 and BET (2017) YouTube (2020–present)

The MOBO Awards (Music of Black Origin, also known as the MOBOs) are an annual British music award presentation honouring achievements in "music of black origin", including hip hop, grime, UK Drill, R&B, soul, reggae, jazz, gospel, and African music.

The MOBO Awards were founded by Kanya King and Andy Ruffell. The first ever award was presented to Baby D, in the Best Dance Act category.^[1] The inaugural awards were broadcast by Carlton Television from London's Connaught Rooms.

In 2009, the ceremony was held for the first time in Glasgow. Prior to that, it had been held in London. In 2011, the ceremony returned for a second time to Scotland. The awards then moved to Leeds for the first time in 2015 and returned there in 2017 before going on hiatus the following year. In 2020 it was confirmed it would be returning later that year, however for the first time ever it would be live streamed on YouTube. For the first time, Sheffield hosted in 2024 with Newcastle announced as the 2025 host city.

Across its history, the MOBOs have been broadcast on Channel 4, BBC Television, ITV2, Channel 5 and BET before returning to the BBC in 2020.