”Slambarz”, Sheffield black community music group, are ”gassed” to welcome the MOBO awards to Sheffield.

The UK’s biggest black music celebration will be held in the Utilita Arena in Sheffield on 7 February 2024. 

Dominic Heslop, otherwise known as The 1Devotion, said: ”I feel crazy, excited, gassed, happy, inspired. Especially for all the young people who have been waiting for something like this. With art or everything in life looks so far away from you, to know they’re going to be on your doorstep is truly inspiring.”

Mr Heslop is the organiser of Slambarz, a live performance and artist development group for young people aged 14-25. The group started in 2017 and have been performing at the Leadmill, and also performed at Tramlines in 2023. Mr Heslop described it as ”A community of creative young people who can vibe.”

The MOBO awards are likely to offer new opportunities to Sheffield’s young artists. Mr Heslop said: ”I think it’s going to champion everything. Having the MOMOs is really going to amplify us into the realms of London and other bigger cities.”

Lavelle Daley, Sheffield singer-songwriter, said: ”I am always going to London to get opportunities. It’s so nice that for once something is coming here. It’s going to shed light and bring eyes to what’s going on in Sheffield. I feel like right now the black community in Sheffield is thriving.”

Ms Daley said that the MOBO awards will shed light to the talent that exists outside of London and represent Sheffield’s black music scene.

Ms Daley said: ”With black culture everything runs into music, food, family, so growing up in and around Pitsmoor I’ve always been around music and black influence, Jamaican people. That’s definitely inspired me and made me want to be a pop star.”