The organisers of the Mobo awards yesterday claimed nominations for this year's ceremony represented a crucial breakthrough for British urban music into the mainstream but said record labels needed to do more to develop homegrown acts.
After Estelle, Dizzee Rascal and Leona Lewis this year conquered the charts, Mobo chief executive and founder Kanya King said British acts could finally compete on a level playing field with their US counterparts.
The best R&B and best hip-hop categories, usually dominated by US superstars, are more equally split than ever. Estelle is nominated in five categories and Lewis, the X-Factor winner who had a huge international hit with Bleeding Love, in three.
Rascal, who recently added commercial success to critical acclaim with his No1 hit Dance With Me, will renew his rivalry with former mentor Wiley. The pair, who fell out after Rascal rose to prominence and have conducted a long-running war of words since, were nominated for three awards each, including best male.
Wiley also made a commercial breakthrough this year, with his track Wearing My Rolex hitting No2 in the charts.
But King said Estelle, who sold more than 400,000 copies of her single American Boy and was nominated for the Nationwide Mercury prize for her album Shine, still had to go to the US to get the recognition she deserved. "It's fantastic to see artists like Estelle, who Mobo championed early on, get their due. I'd like to call on the music industry to keep up the good work and capitalise on this," she said.
King said there would be the "usual questions" over the nomination of white singers Duffy and Adele for the awards, which reward "music of black origin".
"Every year there has been white artists performing on our show and we're 13 years in," said King. "People are either not doing their research or missing the point."
Earlier this year, Estelle suggested in a Guardian interview that the media were guilty of promoting white artists at the expense of black ones. She said: "I'm not mad at [Adele and Duffy], but I'm wondering - how the hell is there not a single black person in the press singing soul?"
Estelle, Lewis, Adele and Duffy will go head to head in the best UK female category with rapper MIA.
The nominations are decided by an industry panel, with the winners voted for by the public via the Mobo website.
Spice Girl Mel B will host the awards alongside Rev Run, of rap group Run DMC, at London's Wembley Arena on October 15. It will be televised on BBC3 and BBC1.
Copyright 2008  guardian.co.uk
