 Jamelia at the MOBOs |
Standing up for UK urban tunes
PREVIEW - MOBO AWARDS
Royal Albert Hall
YOU’VE got to cheer on the organisers of the Music Of Black Origin Awards – they put their money where their mouth was last year when they picked Sway over 50 Pence.
It’s a tough job promoting black music in this country, because despite a glut of r ’n’ b in the charts, it’s nearly always American.
Coming under fire in the past for putting American stars before home-grown talent, they realised that the US bods had little interest in our ceremony, and, if they did turn up, looked really out of place. Worse still, in the bad old days awards would be given to stateside artists who, en mass, weren’t even there. Embarrassing.
Since then they’ve wisened up and concentrated on the British acts, but the gravitas of their headliners are questionable.
While the Brit Awards romp home every year with the biggest acts on the planet, because white indie music is a global leader, urban music in this country struggles. None of MOBO’s British headliners are doing that well commercially – they don’t shift anywhere near the amount white artists do and nor do they trump their American counterparts.
Corinne Bailey Rae was heavily hyped earlier this year, but didn’t do as well as hoped, while Lemar is about to find out if that ‘difficult’ third album he’s releasing will put him on the Wembley stage or merely establish him in the mediocrity league. Keisha White has a lot of promise although her work veers too far over to the US sound, and she’s yet to prove herself where it counts – in the pocket.
MOBO golden boy Sway told me in an interview earlier this year how hard it is for British urban artists to do well, but he is proof that the way ahead for the UK is to really establish its own urban sound.
Enough of the gloom – it’s good to see local boys Akala and Sway nominated, along with Plan B.
Archway-residing Beverly Knight has a mention too, and Jamelia, dubbed the Queen of UK r ’n’ b by the organisers, will also be putting in an appearance. I saw her outside McDonald’s in Finchley Road once you know.
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