Katrina Leskanich

Katrina Elizabeth Leskanich (born April 10, 1960) is an American musician and the former lead singer of the pop rock band Katrina and the Waves.

The family arrived in the United Kingdom in 1976.

She graduated from RAF Lakenheath high school in 1978.

Mama's Cookin', a pop cover band hailing from Feltwell, Norfolk, England, was founded in 1978.

It featured Leskanich on vocals and keyboards, her then-boyfriend (and fellow American) Vince de la Cruz on vocals and lead guitar, and Marcos de la Cruz on drums.

By late 1980, Alex Cooper had joined the band on drums, with Bob Jakins on bass.

Mama's Cookin' proceeded to gig steadily in England over the next two years, specializing in covers of songs by American acts.

In 1981, singer/songwriter/guitarist Kimberley Rew joined Mama's Cookin', and the five-piece group was quickly renamed The Waves after a band Rew and Cooper had been in together in the mid-1970s.

Rew initially fronted the Waves.

However, over the first year of the Waves' existence, Rew began to write material for Leskanich to sing, and she was soon the primary vocalist.

The Waves made their initial recorded appearances on a 1982 single ("Nightmare"/"Hey, War Pig!"); both tracks were included on the 1982 Rew solo album called The Bible of Bop.

The Waves then issued their debut EP, Shock Horror!, later in 1982.

Around this time, bassist Jakins left the band.

He was not replaced, as de la Cruz took over on bass, and the band was rechristened Katrina and the Waves.

In early 1983, the fledgling band recorded—at their own expense—an LP of their original material designed to be sold at gigs.

Rew wrote all the songs on this LP, while Leskanich sang eight of the album's ten tracks.

The LP was shopped around to various labels, but only Attic Records in Canada responded with an offer.

Consequently, although they were based in England, Katrina and The Waves' first album Walking on Sunshine was released only in Canada.

The album garnered enough critical attention and radio play to merit a Canadian tour.

The Katrina and the Waves album was a substantial critical and commercial success, and the group had a worldwide hit with the song "Walking on Sunshine," (No. 9 US, No. 8 UK, a completely re-recorded, and substantially rearranged version of the song when compared to its initial 1983 Canada-only release).

A Grammy award nomination for "Best New Artist" followed, as did constant touring, both of which helped to spur sales of new releases.

In 1984, the group released a follow-up album in Canada (Katrina and the Waves 2), with Leskanich now handling all the lead vocals.

Also in 1984, their song "Going Down to Liverpool" was covered by The Bangles, which added to their profile—with the group building a fan base with their recordings and extensive touring, major label interest began to build.

Their song "Walking on Sunshine" was an international hit in 1985.

Katrina and the Waves signed an international deal with Capitol Records in 1985.

The band re-recorded, remixed, or overdubbed 10 songs from their earlier Canadian releases to create their self-titled international debut album in 1985.

A follow-up single to "Walking on Sunshine" called "Do You Want Crying" (written by de la Cruz) also became a top 40 US hit, reaching No. 37 in the late summer of 1985.

The band's follow-up album, entitled Waves, did not meet with the same measure of success as the first album.

The album did spin off a minor UK and US hit in the form of the Rew-penned "Is That It?"

(No. 70 US, No. 82 UK).

"Sun Street" (a de la Cruz composition) was a UK Top 30 hit in 1986.

However, Capitol dropped the band after the Waves album failed to meet expectations.

The band subsequently recorded a 1989 album for Capitol-distributed SBK Records called Break of Hearts, a harder, more rock-oriented effort than their previous releases.

The album included "That's the Way", which reached No. 16 in the US.

Throughout the 1990s, Katrina and the Waves recorded fairly steadily, though most releases were available only in continental Europe and/or Canada.

In 1997, the band won the Eurovision Song Contest for the United Kingdom with the song "Love Shine a Light".

Both songs were written by her long-term bandmate Kimberley Rew.

Leskanich was born in Topeka, Kansas.

Her father was a Vietnam Veteran who became a colonel in the United States Air Force.

Katrina and her five siblings (four sisters and one brother) moved frequently as children.