MOBOs 2020: Mahalia wins big

Mahalia won Best R&B/Soul and Best Female at this year's awards

A socially-distanced MOBO Awards ceremony, hosted by Maya Jama and Chunkz, was broadcast on YouTube last night.

The awards first started way back in 1996 and honours achievements in "music of black origin", including hip hop, grime, R&B, soul, reggae, jazz, gospel, and African music.

Mahalia won two awards, taking home Best R&B/Soul and Best Female act.

Previous winners have included Beyonce, Sam Smith and Stormzy.

Mahalia went to the BRIT Awards in February this year

22-year-old singer-songwriter Mahalia has been recognised for her soulful music. She told the BBC: "As a young black artist at the MOBOs, everything it stands for and holds is really special."

She wrote her first song at the age of 8 and signed a deal with a major record label at just thirteen! Pretty impressive.

Her EP, Isolation Tapes, was released in May this year and is made up of songs she previously hadn't found time to finish.

"If isolation hadn't happened, I might never have seen those songs again," she says.

Talking about her experience of being creative during the pandemic, she added that it's been a "confusing and stressful" year but "I think a lot of us artists in that time realised how important social media platforms are" to "be able to speak to fans".

Speaking on social media about her two awards, she said she couldn't "even begin to explain how I feel tonight. thank you @moboawards for this huge blessing."

Click here to watch Mahalia's tips on getting creative.

It was Maya's second time hosting the show, but it was her co-host Chunkz who took an award home

All you YouTube fans will be pleased to know that 24-year-old Chunkz won the best media personality award.

The YouTuber has 1.32 million subscribers and is best known for his channel which includes rap battles, cooking, pranks and vlogs.

He was up against his co-host Maya Jama, comedian Mo Gilligan and Radio 1 DJ, and one of this year's Strictly contestants, Clara Amfo.

The MOBOs had a break in 2018 and 2019 so this year's ceremony also included a one-off category to award the best albums released between September 2017 and August 2019, which was won by Ella Mai.