MOBOs boss hits back at Ed Sheeran

The founder of Britain's Music Of Black Origin Awards (MOBOs) has hit back at Ed Sheeran for alleging some pop prizegivings are "rigged".

The Sing hitmaker recently claimed some awards are handed only to artists who can attend the ceremony and alleged he has occasionally been offered accolades that were withdrawn when he failed to show up to collect them.

However, MOBOs founder Kanya King has spoken out to address the comments, telling Britain's Daily Mirror newspaper, "Over the years there have been plenty of artists couldn't attend the ceremony but who have won awards, so why would Ed be any different? Recently, Wiley, Sean Paul, Beyonce have all won awards despite not being able to make the ceremony. You just have to watch Skepta's and Stormzy's wins this year, for instance, to see that they don't know that they are actually winners in their category.

"MOBO Award nominations are chosen by a panel of music experts and voted for by the fans. Artists have been nominated by the MOBO Music Panel various times over the past few years but haven't gone on to gain the most votes in the respective categories - something which is obviously outside of MOBO's hands."