Blog

You saw it this year’s MOBO Awards on TV, but you won’t have seen what happened backstage. Team MOBO's preparation for the awards started months in advance, and culminated in hundreds of production staff, runners, camera crews, PRs, stylists, brand managers, caterers, security and more working long, exhilarating hours for quite some weeks. So here’s a snapshot, from MOBO Eve:

10pm, Friday
Team MOBO are heaving a trolley full of goodies around artist dressing rooms. Trey Songz's crew have deposited copious amounts of Patrón, and we’re busy placing personalised MOBO glasses adorned with crystals, eq8 energy drinks (very necessary at this point), goodie bags filled with St. Tropez, Alterna and The Sanctuary products and incredible handmade paper dogs made by design genius Liam Hopkins of Lazerian.

1am, Saturday
Team MOBO are practically being forcibly removed from the arena. It's time to sleep!

8am, Saturday
We’re greeted by tents; keen JLS fans have been camped outside of the arena all night! Delivery vans, cars and bikes are arriving in their droves, and the MOBO Talent Retreat is a hive of activity- an exclusive backstage haven where the stars are invited to pop in, peruse brands such as Freya, Superdry and HTC, and fill their boots with the latest products.

12pm, Saturday
Switch to the arena and our amazing team of Liverpool-based runners are dressing the VIP tables with vibrant red flowers from Evitatonni, MOBO bottled water by Vivreau, bags of organic treats by Albertha's Garden as well as VIP goodie bags filled with amazing Otone speakers (wireless and with a nifty Union Jack theme- so appropriate for 2012).

5pm, Saturday
Back to the Talent Retreat, Emeli Sandé is picking up goodies from the Holler Watches stand and an insanely sparkly necklace brought especially for her by Tresor Paris. She's then off to warm up.

6pm, Saturday
Coffee in the backstage area is flowing, while our stars to arrive on the red carpet. We make a beeline for Tyler James who is in a spot of bother - a rogue reporter has knocked his perfectly coiffed quiff on the red carpet! Luckily, we take him straight to Electric Hair in the talent retreat to seem a team who’ve been primping and preening stars all day alongside the wonderful Bobbi Brown make-up artists.

7pm, Saturday
Upstairs in the VIP reception, the Lanson White Label champagne is flowing - and backstage, the dressing rooms are buzzing. Ever wondered what it's like to have Rita Ora, JLS, Trey Songz, Stooshe and TLC in VERY close proximity? Loud, lively and a lot of fun.

8.30pm, Saturday
The show begins and it's amazing. We're on the BBC! We're trending on Twitter! Higher than The X Factor! You know the rest.

11pm, Saturday
But the work doesn't stop there. We're herding VIPs to the after party. And then, we're having a drink. Bring on the Lanson!

We'd like to say a big thank you to everyone who helped behind the scenes at this year's MOBO awards. Our extremely generous suppliers and brands and everyone involved in making the show a huge success! You can see our full range of partners and suppliers at mobo.com/partners.