KATRINA LESKANICH
Katrina Leskanich (born April 10, 1960) is an American musician, author and former lead singer of British pop rock band Katrina and the Waves whose song “Walking on Sunshine” was an international hit in 1985 and in 1997 won the Eurovision Song Contest for the United Kingdom with the song “Love Shine a Light”. (More from Wikipedia)
Katrina and the Waves came along in the 1980’s when a lot of the alternative rock music was getting pretty serious, and were they a breath of fresh air. Kimberley Rew (guitar, chief songwriter) put together a band in the mid-1970’s called the Waves (along with a cover band called Mama’s Cookin’); but it was their second incarnation as Katrina and the Waves that hit the big time, after his other band, the Soft Boys came and went. Other bandmembers were Katrina Leskanich (guitar, lead vocals), Vince de la Cruz (bass), and Alex Cooper (drums). Actually Kimberley Rew was also a sometime lead singer, but that didn’t last long. Their major hit was “Walking on Sunshine” (1985), but they previously wrote and recorded a song that was a hit by the Bangles, “Going Down to Liverpool”.
I have previously told the ironic tale of finding the 12-inch single of the follow-up hit by Katrina and the Waves to “Walking on Sunshine”, called “Do You Want Crying” as practically the first record that I picked up in the yard from the wreckage of our home from Hurricane Katrina in August 2005. “Katrina” would have been enough by itself, but with the band name being the Waves . . .
From Wikipedia: “When Hurricane Katrina and its storm surge devastated much of the U.S. Gulf Coast in [August-]September 2005, the MSNBC news program, Countdown with Keith Olbermann, dubbed its coverage of the hurricane, ‘Katrina and the Waves’; the name also appeared in numerous headlines and blog postings. A New York Times reporter contacted Katrina Leskanich [of Katrina and the Waves], who said: ‘The first time I opened the paper and saw “Katrina kills 9”, it was a bit of a shock. . . . I hope that the true spirit of “Walking on Sunshine” will prevail. I would hate for the title to be tinged with sadness, and I will have to do my own part to help turn that around.’” She had the same or similar sentiments posted on her website for several months. Anyway, I still hear “Walking on Sunshine” on the radio frequently, and it has the same joyful spirit to me.
I initially had Katrina and the Waves confused with a rock band that I remember from some years earlier that did pretty good music (live, not just recorded background music) in a recruitment video I believe for the U. S. Air Force. I have no idea who they were (and can find nothing on the Internet about them); but their female lead singer looked a little like Katrina Leskanich, and the Waves were the female section of the U. S. Naval Reserves, so that sure made sense to me. Since they are a British band, I doubt very much if they were the ones; though in actuality, Katrina and her then-boyfriend Vince de la Cruz are from America, so who knows.
(March 2016)
