Olivia Dean was the biggest winner at the 2026 Mobo awards, taking home best female act, album of the year and song of the year for her No 1 hit Man I Need. The ceremony, honouring the best of black music, was staged at the Co-op Live arena in Manchester.
Other winners included Raye, whose song Where Is My Husband! won video of the year; Central Cee, who was awarded best hip-hop act; and Ezra Collective in the jazz category. Dean, who also performed at the 30th anniversary event, has had a spectacular year, having won best new act at the Grammys and four out of five awards at the Brit awards earlier this month.
Special honours went to Slick Rick, who received the Mobo lifetime achievement award, and Pharrell Williams, who was awarded the global songwriter award. Stephen Graham won best performance in a TV show/film for Adolescence, while Niko Omilana was named media personality of the year.
Accepting the award for best album, Dean said: 'This album was really just born out of me wanting to write something about love and really what it means to me and us loving each other. And I want to just dedicate this actually to [the black feminist author] bell hooks and all the black feminists that inspire me to love better and love the people in my life.'
