This time next year will be 20 years since we took home our MOBO, and 23 years since the MOBO Awards started. It’s one of many highlights in my career, long before moving into TV - but a journey not many people know about. So I wrote about it here; a few memories of the night…
Someone from the MOBO team came to get us. We were needed at the side of the stage, as were the other nominees. They were going to announce the winner next, so we had to be ready. This COULD be our moment! Then we stood up from our seats, and I heard someone holla, “Go get ‘em girls!” Lo and behold… it was the veteran Newsreader Moira Stewart sat behind us, pump-fisting the air with good wishes. Thanks Moira! We took home Diesel Best Unsigned Act that night, four females with stars in our eyes, hungry for success. Our image was a little bit street, rough-round-the-edge R’n’B chicks.
Backstage with our MOBO in hand, in the mele of press runs, we came face-to-face with the hottest girl group of the moment - Letoya, Latavia, Kelly and Beyonce: “Congraaatulaaations” in their thick southern drawl, checking us out head to toe. Till this day I’m convinced they saw us as a poundland version of themselves haha. Hey… I’ll take it! I loved Destiny’s Child. I still do. They’d just collected their ‘Best International R&B’ MOBO and were role models for girls like me. The message and confidence they carried even then was empowering, it’s amazing to have shared the same stage. But it was Des’ree that blew me away, I was a superfan and fell in awe as I caught a glimpse of her talking to reporters.
As strange as this might sound, that night was like being welcomed into a new family. Chris Eubank came over to congratulate us and share his advice on how to handle it from here on out. We were far from ‘celebrities’ but the moment was a first taste of the doors an award like MOBO can open. Fast forward a year and we had a manager (Kwame Kwaten of D’Influence) and were signing a contract with Warner LIVE on the ITV lunchtime News. It was a whirlwind ride - appearances on Channel 4’s Flava series, recording songs with Glamma Kid (‘Bills 2 Pay’) and Sid Owen (Rickaaaay from Eastenders). We were flown out to Las Vegas for the MOBO 2000 launch where Radio 1 DJ Trevor Nelson - who was hosting with TLC’s Lisa ‘Left-Eye’ Lopez - invited us out to party. Amazing!!! But it sounds more exciting than it was. At 17 years old - and the youngest of the group - I couldn’t get into a Las Vegas club. Gutted haha!
…So what was it like to win a MOBO? It was fun and fleeting. An amazing experience. It’s something I rarely speak about because it was so long ago, but everything comes full circle right? It’s almost 20 years but I really began to reflect after a chat with Lady Leshurr while filming her for a grime piece I did for the BBC Six o’clock News. “You’ve got a MOBO? Wow that’s big,” she said. “Every grime artist wants a MOBO. You ask any of them, they’ll tell you.” A few months later, it was Ms Leshurr that went on to win Best Female Act!
To think - a small start-up launched in the bedroom of MOBO founder Kanya King, who’s been awarded a CBE, has grown into such a culturally relevant platform for international and homegrown talent - honouring the likes of Destiny’s Child, Stormzy and Skepta. And I have my own tucked away at home.
So last year, I chuckled to see my name on a seat next to Ms King at a fundraising gala for Girls-I-Rate, an organisation that champions women in the creative industries, founded by Carla-Marie Williams, the British songwriter of Beyonce’s Freedom and Runnin’ (Lose It All). How funny!
Things really do come in full circle, and I’m as passionate about music and arts as I was 20 years ago - that’s evident in the people I interview today for the RTS award-winning BBC Six and Ten o’clock News; John Boyega, Letitia Wright, Malachi Kirby, Lily Allen, Carla-Marie Williams, Lady Leshurr, Imogen Heap, Teddy Sinclair and Don Letts.
Evidently we didn’t become the next Destiny’s Child. As so often happens with bands, very few make it to the top and a vast majority - back in those days - would never see the light of day. This is long before social media changed the game. Who needs a record label nowadays?
Today I feel blessed to still be working in the creative industry as a Presenter, Reporter and Host. Away from work, I’ll spend days and weekends on guitar and songwriting retreats. And although awards of any kind don’t define who I am - MOBO is, and always will be, part of my story.
- written October 2018.
Possibly the ONLY time I’ll ever get my hands on that much money!! Receiving a cheque from Spice Girl Emma Bunton on behalf of my alma mater The BRIT School
Backstage at the MOBO after party 2000
Doing some Damage… with Jade Jones at the MOBO after party 2000
Strike a pose!
Las Vegas with Jamelia for MOBO Awards press launch 2000
