{"id":919761,"date":"2026-10-07T19:46:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-07T19:46:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/919761\/"},"modified":"2026-10-07T19:46:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-07T19:46:10","slug":"kojey-radical-honored-with-billboard-u-k-s-trailblazer-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/919761\/","title":{"rendered":"Kojey Radical Honored With Billboard U.K.’s Trailblazer Award"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tBillboard U.K. <\/a>hosted its inaugural 40 Under 40<\/a> honors event Wednesday (Oct. 7) in Salford to celebrate the young industry leaders shaking up the U.K music scene.<\/p>\n

\n\tTaking place at Media City, just outside of Manchester, the invite-only ceremony honored the chosen executives for the <\/a>first-ever Billboard U.K. 40 Under 40 list. The list celebrates talent from across major music institutions, including labels and distributors, management, publishing, streaming companies, the live business, rights associations and more.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe event also saw Kojey Radical<\/a>, one of the U.K.\u2019s most eclectic and forward-thinking rappers, become the recipient of the Trailblazer Award. His emotional speech was followed by a set from local indie band Bank Holiday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tDuring the afternoon\u2019s opening remarks, Billboard U.K. editor Thomas Smith praised the honorees\u2019 \u201cnew ideas and new approaches in the way we work.\u201d He continued: \u201cI truly feel like the difference makers in our sector are in this room. The sector thrives on innovation and fresh thinking.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe same old ways of working are gone \u2026 so how can we set new standards and encourage and uplift one another? That\u2019s why I love this list; to give young, dynamic people their flowers while they\u2019re still in development phase. Bringing this honors event to Beyond the Music feels like a perfect fit between a shared goal: inspiring the next generation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\n\tBev Craig, mayor of Greater Manchester, also delivered a rousing speech celebrating what it meant to see the event \u2014 which formed part of the Beyond the Music industry conference\u2019s official programming \u2014 take place in Manchester, and her goals for the region\u2019s sector.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe challenge is to make sure that the world that we\u2019re trying to create is one that treasures creativity. One that gives room for it to grow and space for it to thrive,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd I say this as a kid from a council estate; we need to give people the opportunities to be able to rise to the top of their game,\u2029no matter their background.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tShe continued: \u201cI think there\u2019s a chance for us to kick off a conversation here that is different, one that is special, but one that helps us shape the future and doesn\u2019t just accept our old ways of working.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tKojey received the Trailblazer Award following a blockbuster 2026. The artist sold out London\u2019s iconic Royal Albert Hall in the spring and released his second LP, Don\u2019t Look Down, which will compete in this year\u2019s Mercury Prize ceremony in Newcastle on Oct. 22.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cReceiving the Trailblazer Award feels particularly emotional because being a trailblazer isn\u2019t about knowing where you\u2019re going,\u201d said Kojey while accepting the award.\u00a0\u201cMaybe, sometimes, it\u2019s just having enough faith to keep walking when there is no clear path.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I definitely didn\u2019t walk it alone,\u201d he continued. \u201cI had a lot of help and a lot of belief from a lot of people in this room and I am totally grateful for that. There are people that believe in me: my family, my friends, my team. Every collaborator that gave me this place to be strange, ambitious and curious, sometimes all at the same time. And the people that have listened to the music and bought a ticket, shared the work \u2026 you\u2019ve given me permission to keep going.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe concluded: \u201cThank you to Billboard U.K. for recognizing not just the music, but the whole journey, because for somebody who spent a lot of his life being told directly and indirectly to \u2018pick a lane,\u2019 there\u2019s something incredibly meaningful about being honored for refusing to. And to everybody on the [Billboard U.K.] 40 Under 40 list, congratulations.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWatch his speech below:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Billboard U.K. hosted its inaugural 40 Under 40 honors event Wednesday (Oct. 7) in Salford to celebrate the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":919762,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[64,63,103813,134,9056,136,9057],"class_list":["post-919761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-billboard-uk","tag-entertainment","tag-genre-hiphop","tag-music","tag-music-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=919761"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919761\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/919762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=919761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=919761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=919761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}