Music mogul Jamal Edwards dies aged 31: Tributes pour in for SB.TV founder and YouTuber
Music mogul Jamal Edwards dies aged 31: Tributes pour in for SB.TV founder and YouTuber who helped launch careers of Jessie J, Dave and Ed Sheeran
Jamal Edwards gained fame from setting up new music platform SBTV – helping to launch a string of UK music careersThe music entrepreneur, who was awarded an MBE in 2014 for his services to music, died on Sunday morning Tributes poured in for Mr Edwards, with Bafta-winning actor writer, director, and producer Adam Deacon saying he was ‘heartbroken’
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British music entrepreneur Jamal Edwards has died at the age of 31, his manager has said.
Mr Edwards gained fame from setting up new music platform SB.TV – helping to launch a string of UK music careers including Dave, Ed Sheeran and Jessie J.
The music entrepreneur, who was awarded an MBE in 2014 at the age of 24 for his services to music, died on Sunday morning, his manager said.
Jamal Edwards with his Member of the British Empire (MBE), after it was awarded to him by the Prince of Wales at an Investiture Ceremony, at Buckingham Palace in central London in March 2015
Mr Edwards gained fame from setting up new music platform SB.TV – helping to launch a string of UK music careers including Ed Sheeran
Mr Edwards, who is the son of Loose Women star Brenda Edwards (pictured together in November 2021), was also a Princes Trust Ambassador
Mr Edwards, who is the son of Loose Women star Brenda Edwards, was also a Princes Trust Ambassador.
Tributes have poured in for the music mogul, with Bafta-winning actor writer, director, and producer Adam Deacon, known for his leading role in Kidulthood, saying he was ‘heartbroken’ about the death of Mr Edwards.
He said on Twitter: ‘Today I was on set when I found out the tragic news that my good friend Jamal Edwards had passed away and I’m honestly heartbroken.
‘Jamal was one of the nicest, most down to earth and humble men I’ve met in this industry. He always gave me time even when no one else would.
‘He was an inspiration and what he achieved in life was truly remarkable. Thinking of his friends and family at this devastating time. RIP Jamal Edwards.’
Mr Edwards was a teenager when he decided to launch the youth broadcasting and production film SBTV to upload clips he recorded of his friends performing on the estate where he lived in Acton, west London.
By 2014, he had amassed an estimated fortune of around £8 million and worked with the likes of Jessie J, Emeli Sande and Ed Sheeran.
Musician, singer, songwriter, rapper and record producer Elliot Gleave, better known by his stage name Example, has paid tribute to SBTV founder Jamal Edwards.
In a post in Instagram, he wrote: ‘Can’t believe you’re gone. 31 years old. Can’t find the words right now.’
The music entrepreneur, who was awarded an MBE in 2014 at the age of 24 for his services to music, died on Sunday morning, his manager said
Prince of Wales on a sofa with Jamal Edwards during a live session at the launch of the Prince’s Trust Summer Sessions at the Princes’s Trust in Historic Chatham Dockyard in Chatham, Kent, in 2013
DJ, model and presenter Snoochie Shy, AKA Cheyenne Davide, paid tribute to SBTV founder Jamal Edwards, who has died.
‘RIP to Jamal Edwards. One of the kindest, thoughtful and all round great person. Gone way too soon,’ she wrote on Twitter.
Awards organisation Mobo has paid tribute to SBTV founder Jamal Edwards, who has died at the age of 31.
On Twitter, it said: ‘We are deeply saddened to learn of Jamal Edwards passing. As the founder of @SBTVonline, his groundbreaking work and legacy in British music and culture will live on.
‘Our hearts and thoughts are with his friends and family.’
Mr Edwards gained fame from setting up new music platform SBTV – helping to launch a string of UK music careers including Dave and Jessie J
Speaking after receiving his MBE in 2014, Mr Edwards said he started SBTV to give his friends a platform.
He added: ‘It was a frustration of going to school and everyone talking about ‘how do we get our videos on MTV’.
‘YouTube was like a year old. I was like ‘I’ve got a camera for Christmas, I’m going to start filming people and uploading it’.
‘Everyone was looking at me like ‘what are you doing, like you can compete with these major corporations’, but I think I was early enough to believe that I could make a change.’
In the same interview, he described his working relationship with musicians as ‘symbiotic’.
‘50% is the talent and 50% is the platform,’ he said.
‘I try to focus on people that haven’t got the platform. As well as getting a really well-known artist I want to get the up-and-coming ones as well.’
