There’s another big development for this year’s MOBO Awards – the 30th anniversary edition.
Following the news that the ceremony will move to Manchester’s Co-op Live (also home to the BRITs), Amazon Music has revealed that it will be livestreaming the 2026 MOBOs direct from the arena as the official digital music streaming partner.
The livestream of the awards ceremony will be available to watch on the Amazon Music UK channel on Twitch from 8pm on March 26.
Hip-hop star Eve and comedian & broadcaster Eddie Kadi will host the ceremony. The broadcast will feature live performances from Olivia Dean, FLO, Tiwa Savage, plus a special MOBO Salutes: Grime 25 performance with Wiley, Chip, Nolay, Scorcher and D Double E, curated by Target. More performers and special honourees will be announced soon.
Leading this year’s nominations are Little Simz, Olivia Dean and rising stars Kwn and Jim Legxacy, each earning four nominations. Central Cee, FLO, PinkPantheress and Skepta each score three nominations.
Amazon Music is sponsoring the Album of The Year category for 2026. The nominees are: Central Cee – Can’t Rush Greatness, Ezra Collective – Dance, No One’s Watching, FLO – Access All Areas, Kojey Radical – Don’t Look Down, Little Simz – Lotus and Olivia Dean – The Art of Loving.
The Official MOBO Awards 2026 Playlist and MOBO 30 Playlist are streaming now exclusively on Amazon Music.
As part of the MOBO Fringe Festival, Amazon Music is an official partner of The Summit event, which will take place on Tuesday, March 24 at Aviva Studios in Manchester, and will include two Amazon Music hosted panels. The free programme will feature industry panels, talent showcases, live performances and creative workshops spanning music, tech and the arts.
MOBO will also be launching MOBO 30 T-shirts and hoodies via Amazon’s on-demand merch platform.
Here, MOBO Group founder & CEO Kanya King joins Laura Lukanz, head of music industry, UK, Australia & New Zealand at Amazon Music, to reveal the full extent of their partnership…
What do you think Amazon brings to this year's event as a key partner? How important is it to have them amplifying the awards on multiple fronts?
Kanya King: “What Amazon Music brings is scale, digital innovation and cultural connectivity. For our 30th anniversary year, the 2026 MOBO Awards will be livestreamed on the Amazon Music UK channel on Twitch. Through Amazon Music, the awards are experienced live, discovered through playlists, supported through merchandising, and amplified through multiple digital touchpoints. Amazon Music is also sponsoring the Album Of The Year, spotlighting nominees editorially, and partnering with us at the MOBO Fringe Festival. So the relationship is ecosystem-based. For MOBO at 30, it felt important to modernise the moment while honouring the legacy. This isn’t just about livestreaming a show. It’s about extending cultural impact beyond the arena.”
For MOBO at 30, it felt important to modernise the moment while honouring the legacy
Kanya King
Streaming partnerships are not unusual but the livestream element here feels new and exciting – how did that Twitch broadcast partnership come about in discussions for the show?
KK: “The livestream conversation came from a shared ambition – not just to broadcast the awards, but to make people feel part of the moment wherever they are in the world. When we started talking with Amazon Music, Twitch stood out because it’s not passive viewing. It’s communal, interactive and built around real-time culture. For MOBO’s 30th anniversary that felt incredibly fitting. We wanted the energy inside Co-op Live in Manchester to travel instantly – whether someone is watching in Lagos, New York, Kingston or down the road in Manchester. That sense of shared experience is what makes this partnership exciting.”
How significant will the global reach be on Twitch – what are your hopes for that given stars including Olivia Dean, FLO and Tiwa Savage are performing?
Laura Lukanz: “The Amazon Music UK Twitch channel is a truly global stage for music’s biggest moments. With an exciting line-up including Olivia Dean, FLO and Tiwa Savage, we’re expecting fans from all corners of the world to tune in and celebrate together. Each of these artists brings their own passionate, international fanbase, and Twitch’s live community format means it’s not just a broadcast – it’s a shared experience. Fans can connect, react and engage with each other in real time, which makes the whole thing feel electric.”
Amazon is embracing the 30th anniversary with merchandise and a playlist – how important do you think the MOBOs has been as a platform for UK and international talent?
LL: “Celebrating 30 years of the MOBOs feels like a genuinely momentous occasion - and for us at Amazon Music, it’s a real privilege to be part of it. When you look back at what the MOBOs have achieved over three decades, it’s hard to overstate the impact. When the awards launched in 1996, there were very few spaces for Black artists in the mainstream UK music industry. The MOBOs didn’t just fill that gap – they helped move Black British music to the very heart of UK culture, and that’s an extraordinary legacy. The MOBOs have been there at pivotal moments in so many incredible artist careers and recognised emerging genres, and cultural waves way before the mainstream. They provided that platform, that recognition, that springboard, and in doing so they have helped change the trajectory of British music forever.”
KK: “For 30 years MOBO has been a launchpad and a powerful platform for UK and international talent. Artists who’ve come through MOBO have gone on to shape global music. But one of the biggest misconceptions is that MOBO is just one night. In reality it’s a series of events, programmes and cultural moments that build up to the awards. Things like playlists and merchandise help extend that journey – giving the artists and the culture a longer life far beyond the stage.”
MOBO Awards hosts Eve and Eddie Kadi
How is the merch platform powering the MOBO partnership, and does that reflect the success of Amazon’s on-demand merch division for artists?
LL: “This is actually the first time we’ve created merchandise for a UK awards show – and for the MOBOs’ 30th anniversary, it couldn’t feel more fitting. The online shop features limited-edition t-shirts and hoodies that celebrate three decades of extraordinary music, culture and legacy, giving fans a genuine piece of history to hold onto. It’s also an exciting signal of where things are heading. On-demand merch is becoming one of the most powerful ways for artists and brands to connect with fans directly and meaningfully, and we’re really happy to be helping lead that conversation.”
What will the Amazon-led programming be for MOBO Fringe Festival? What are the key conversations for this year’s event?
KK: “MOBO Fringe has become a city-wide cultural takeover – not just a satellite to the awards, but an ecosystem in its own right. This year, key conversations include ownership, artist sustainability, health and wellbeing, AI and creativity, and pathways into the music business. Amazon Music will be a key partner for the MOBO Music Summit as part of the MOBO Fringe festival. This Summit will see an intimate panel conversation celebrating the history of the MOBO Awards, with some very special guests joining; and an educational workshop connecting emerging Black music talent from Manchester and surrounding regions with established industry professionals, highlighting Amazon Music’s artist development tools and breakthrough initiatives.”
LL: “Dellessa [James, senior artist relations manager] and the team have been working really hard on this. This year at the MOBO Fringe Festival, Amazon Music is hosting two conversations that sit at the heart of what we care so much about – artist development and celebrating legacy. As an official partner of the Summit, we’re bringing two panel events that we think will genuinely resonate. The first is our Amazon Music for Artists: +44 Workshop – a dedicated session designed to support emerging artists with practical career development insights and a deep dive into the Amazon Music for Artists analytics tools. The second is our Amazon Music Panel: MOBO30 Legacy Spotlight – a celebratory conversation featuring previous MOBO Award winners, honouring the extraordinary legacy of 30 years of MOBO. It’s going to be a really special moment.”
Twitch’s live community format means it’s not just a broadcast – it’s a shared experience.
Laura Lukanz
How will Amazon be promoting the nominees in terms of the playlist and the Album Of The Year contenders?
LL: “For us, it’s all about celebrating the artists and making sure both long time fans and those discovering these artists for the first time can find everything they need in one place. Amazon Music will host a dedicated MOBOs space on the app, bringing together albums, two specially curated playlists – MOBO Awards 2026 and MOBO 30, and a full social media push supporting the artists before, during – live from the red carpet! – and after the awards. We’ll also be running an OOH campaign putting the nominees front and centre in key locations.”
Are you hopeful that Amazon Music can shine a global spotlight on the artists, particularly the Album nominees?
KK: “Absolutely. MOBO was founded on the principle of visibility – correcting imbalance and ensuring music of Black origin was seen, respected and platformed at the highest level. Visibility isn’t vanity; it’s access. It’s opportunity. It’s economic mobility. With Amazon Music’s global infrastructure and the live broadcast on Twitch, there’s a real opportunity to extend the reach of our nominees and performers far beyond traditional UK boundaries. What excites me is the immediacy. An artist can perform in Manchester and, in that same moment, be discovered in Lagos, New York, Toronto or Kingston. That compresses the distance between local recognition and global momentum.
“If even one artist secures a new territory, a new audience, a new streaming spike or a career-defining opportunity because of that exposure, then the partnership has delivered real value and that has always been MOBO’s purpose – to build platforms that don’t just celebrate talent, but accelerate it beyond borders.”
FOLLOW 
