For the audience watching performances by twentysomethings Olivia Dean, Myles Smith and Aitch on Thursday night in the Co-op Live arena in Manchester it will seem like a lifetime away from 1996, when the Mobo awards began.

What has become known as a joyful celebration of music of Black origin came from “a very real sense of frustration”, said Kanya King, Mobo’s founder and chief executive. “I could see the impact that Black music and culture was having on British culture – I mean it was shaping everything – but it wasn’t being properly recognised or respected by the mainstream industry.”

It is a frustration that has not left her, despite the huge cultural impact of the organisation she created. Though Mobo is now one of the most recognisable brands in the music industry, consistently pushing the dial on recognition for music of Black origin, change has been slow.

“Did I think we’d still be here 30 years later? Honestly, no,” laughed King. “I was just focused on making the first awards show happen because I didn’t have resources or skills and everything I needed, so therefore I had to remortgage my house and put everything on the line.

“But what kept Mobo going is that the need didn’t disappear, the landscape evolved, but the core mission, whether that was recognition, opportunity and equity, is just as important today.”

She highlighted research from UK Music published last week which found Black music accounts for about 80% of the UK’s recorded music market – £24.5bn of the sector’s £30bn revenue.

King, whose work led to her receiving an MBE in 1999, followed by a CBE in 2018, said the Black Music Means Business report showed “Black music is not a subculture”. “It is the engine, and yet it’s not being treated that way.

“There is a contradiction at the heart of British culture. Black music shapes what we listen to, how we speak, how we dress, how we tell our stories and I guess it’s defined as Britain’s cultural identity but structurally and institutionally is still often treated as marginal, as a genre or as niche or as something ‘other’.”

But while revenue from Black music is high, the industry is much further behind when it comes to representing this in its staff. A workforce survey in 2024 found only a quarter of music industry staff were from Black, Asian, and minority ethnic backgrounds.

King said: “Black music in Britain grew out of communities that were themselves marginalised, immigrant communities, working-class communities, communities outside traditional centres of power. So, the industry was not built with these voices in mind and so communities had to kind of build their own ecosystem and when something is built outside of the system, the system often struggles to value it.”

While there had been a lot of progress since the 90s in terms of greater visibility and more conversations about the contribution of Black music, “progress is not the same as parity and it really is not happening fast enough”.

She called for a “bias for action from those in positions of power, whether that’s government, whether that’s media, business”. The report had some clear recommendations but “the report alone doesn’t create change, action does.”

The organisation has been ahead of the crowd for decades in terms of action.

The 30th Mobo awards is taking place in the same Manchester arena – the UK’s largest indoor venue – that only weeks ago held the Brit awards, and a lot was made about the iconic ceremony venturing outside the capital for the first time. But it is 17 years behind Mobo, which had its first awards outside London in 2009 and has moved around ever since.

“We wanted to create that huge impact, it was about equity, it was about who owns the culture, who benefits from it, who has the power to build business and infrastructure around it and if we get that right, the future is incredibly exciting,” said King, about the reasons for moving outside London. “If we don’t, we risk continuing a cycle where the culture is celebrated but the communities behind it are not fully rewarded.”

Mobo is holding a week of fringe activities around the awards aim to help emerging artists from outside London gain a platform and a foothold in an industry that relies so heavily on contacts.

She said the Newcastle fringe last year had generated an estimated £1.3m for the local economy. “But more importantly, it created access for young people, emerging artists and communities that don’t always get those opportunities. It created a lot of confidence and validation that you cannot put a price on.”

She added: “We’re not just celebrating success but we’re creating opportunity. We’re not just recognising talent but we’re building the infrastructure around it because ultimately Mobo has always been more than music. It’s about shifting culture and making sure that that shift continues and creates real lasting change.”

The Mobo awards 2026 will be available to stream live on the Amazon Music UK channel on Twitch on 26 March. Access All Areas: MOBO Awards 2026 airs on BBC One on 27 March at 11:25pm.