MOBO Help Musicians Fund Open To Emerging Grass Root Talent

Help Musicians UK, the leading independent charity for supporting and empowering musicians in the United Kingdom, has again teamed up with MOBO Trust, MOBO Organisation’s charitable arm, established to help young people reach their full potential in a wide range of disciplines within the creative sector.

MOBO Help Musicians Fund is open for the second year, running to help support the creative and career ambitions of emerging talent. Grants of up to £2,000 each are made available to support exceptionally talented solo artists, song writers and groups, fund their development to significantly impact on their creative and career aspirations.

After the success of last year’s pilot, The MOBO Help Musicians Fund’s total fund has been increased to £40,000, creating even more funding opportunities for grass roots talent at the start of their careers, with groups of five or more now eligible to apply for grants up to £3,000.

HMUK’s Head of Creative Programme Lucy Bampton said: “We’re thrilled to announce we have doubled our investment in the MOBO Help Musicians Fund following such a successful pilot year. This additional investment and working with the fantastic MOBO Trust will enable us to support even more exciting and innovative artists from genres beyond the existing commercial heartland. We’re particularly excited to expand our criteria to enable larger groups, such as gospel choirs, to realise their career ambitions.”

This year’s fund opened on Wednesday September 12th, with solo artists, producers, groups and songwriters from across the UK, who have been making music and performing, but do not have significant financial backing, eligible to apply. Whilst we encourage applications from genres beyond the commercial heartland such as RnB, Soul, Afrobeats, Jazz, Gospel, Reggae and African as well as Hip Hop and Grime, talent from any genre are welcome to apply.

Those eligible for the grants would be able to fund a broad spectrum of activities that are vital to an artist’s career and creative development – from vocal coaching, support for live performance and touring, video production, recording studio access, PR, marketing and promotion.

MOBO founder and CEO Kanya King CBE: “MOBO has a long history of championing and supporting the next generation of talent in Urban music. Yet with each new generation of artists comes new challenges to develop one’s art and get to the next level, so financial backing early on is critical to the long-term growth of a fledgling artist. After last year’s successful pilot and witnessing the progress of last year’s recipients, it was only natural to continue this partnership with Help Musicians UK and we are therefore proud to be able to offer even more exceptional musicians, songwriters and producers invaluable funding and support in achieving their career ambitions. We look forward to seeing more of the wide range of grass roots talent the UK has to offer”.

The closing date for applications is Monday 8 October at 9:00am.

https://www.helpmusicians.org.uk