MOBOs No No

Like most music fans I stayed up last night to watch the 11th annual Music of Black Origin (MOBO) Awards. We’d been eagerly anticipating this show for weeks, not because Beyonce was scheduled (or not) to perform but because the awards promised to showcase some of the best black British music talent today. As an added bonus, our boy Batman was also in the running to once again shine a light on Ghana on the world stage and I was also keeping my fingers crossed for Lemar and secretly rooting for Kano and Sway. So there was plenty of vested interest.

But yesterday’s show was a dire disappointment. From the moment the cameras panned to a half empty (or half full?) Royal Albert Hall you knew it would all be downhill from there. When the cameras did pick up revellers they all looked about 12, as if they’d absconded through their bedroom windows to make it to the venue. The atmosphere felt decidedly flat and there was no vibe in the air.

Gina Yashere was an OK host but to drag one-hit wonder Coolio from the 90’s in to the contemporary era was a big mistake (and yes, I know that the Gangsta’s Paradise rapper is launching a comeback). It only amplified the fact that the MOBOs failed to pull the kind of big draw hosts they’d secured in the past.

The individual award hosts, too, were a rag tag army of D-listers and has-beens and even they looked embarrassed to be reading the stodgy ‘spontaneous’ lines that interspersed the nominations. Kelle Bryan, Lisa I’Anson, Michelle Gayle, Miss Britain, Miss World, whatever! Why?? There were many others but even today I still don’t know who they are. Hardly the cream of the crop of current UK talent. And Trevor Phillips presenting an anti-slavery award? Please! Next, he’ll be heading up a government race equality watchdog:)

The live performances were also below par. While my boy Lemar did hold it down for most of his set, towards the end he audibly fell off. Corinne Bailey Rae, who I know can give a great live performance, looked and sounded tired and I don’t even know where to begin with Jamelia! (Sister looked good, though!) Letoya, who was supposed to be the big American draw was, well, not Beyonce and failed to live up to (small) expectations.

But there was light at the (very) end of the (long) tunnel. Keisha White’s soulful duet with Sam Moore was uplifting and engaging, and the old man showed the youngsters that they’re still just pretenders.

To be fair, the problem with yesterday’s show was that there were no big beats and that let the party down. What happened to the hip-hop heads (e.g. 50 Cent) and classic duets (e.g. Jay Kay and Diana Ross) of earlier MOBO years that consistently bought the house down? Where were the big name acts to grace the stage? I won’t even go in to the dropping of the jazz act category.

What the event did was to expose the gaping hole that exists, not within the British music industry but within the MOBOs itself. What started out as an awards show to salute the finest black UK music talent has become so big that it’s now almost a second-rate Brits. Let’s get back to basics and start honouring those who deserve to win, not those who we think will attract the biggest sponsors.

Respect to Lemar and Corinne Bailey Rae, the truly worthy winners of the night! SA.