Homegrown stars dominate the first list of acts confirmed to perform at this year’s MOBO Awards, with N-Dubz, JLS and Professor Green all set to play the leading urban event.
U.K. pop star Alesha Dixon is also set to perform at the urban music awards ceremony, which takes place Oct. 20 at Liverpool’s Echo Arena. Dixon will also host the event alongside U.K. TV and radio personality Reggie Yates.
This year’s MOBO Awards, which marks the 15th anniversary of what organizers claim to be Europe’s biggest urban music awards, coincides with a boom in the popularity of U.K. urban artists, following the recent Stateside success of Jay Sean and Taio Cruz, alongside strong U.K. performances from Dizzee Rascal, Tinie Tempah, Tinchy Stryder and Chipmunk.
U.K. rapper Tinie Tempah leads the nominations for the 2010 MOBO Awards, which will be broadcast live on BBC Three with BBC One to show edited highlights Oct. 22. Professor Green and N-Dubz are also up for three awards apiece, while Rihanna, Black Eyed Peas, Beyonce, Alicia Keys, Drake and Jason Derulo are among the nominees battling for the title of best international act. International acts performing at the awards ceremony will be announced shortly, say organizers.
All of this year’s categories will be voted for by the public via official website www.mobo.com, with the exception of best jazz act and best gospel act, which are half voted for by the public and half by the MOBO music panel, made up of industry experts.
Last year’s event, which took place outside of London for the first time and was staged in Glasgow’s SECC Arena, was attended by over 7,000 people and drew a TV audience of over 300,000 when it was broadcast live on national network BBC Three. A subsequent highlights package broadcast several days later on BBC1 was watched by a further 1 million people, according to the BBC.
