King Cosmos thanks the judges for his SOCA recording of the year award for "Island Girl." (PHOTO: Stan Behal, SUN)

The Canadian Urban Music Awards kicked off a two-night celebration with a gala dinner at the TD Centre's 53rd floor last night.

The first 15 awards were presented.

Multiple nominees Jully Black and K-OS proclaimed their prominence on the Canadian urban music scene this year by taking home high-profile awards.

Black's Sweat Of Your Brow (Tricky Moreira remix) won for best dance/electronic recording, while K-OS was awarded best songwriter.

Other winners last night included Fito Blanko for best global rhythms recording, King Cosmos for best soca recording, Patricia Shirley for best gospel recording, Malik Shaheed for best francophone recording, Dwayne Morgan for best spoken word recording and Starting From Scratch for DJ of the year.

The remaining 10 awards, including best R&B/soul, hip-hop, reggae and jazz recording, new artist, producer, video and fan's choice, are presented tonight at the Kool Haus.

Hosted by comedian Russell Peters, the show will feature performances by Black (who's up for three more awards), Rochester a.k.a. Juice, Massari, Kardinal Offishall, Divine Brown, Maestro, Sonia Collymore and Fito Blanko.

Presenters include American stars Ginuwine, Obie Trice and CL Smooth as well as sports personalities Donovan Bailey, Trish Stratus, Jalen Rose and Morris Peterson.

The two nights of awards-giving will be broadcast as an hour-long special on SUN-TV Dec.21.