Kristine W

Kristine Elizabeth Weitz, widely known by her stage name Kristine W, is an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and entrepreneur.

She is most widely known as a dance music artist.

Born and raised in Pasco, Washington, she found early success competing in pageants and talent contests, winning Miss Washington and a preliminary swimsuit award as well as a NFT award in the Miss America pageant.

Kristine W is now one of the most popular dance club artists of all time, with 17 #1s to date on the Billboard Dance Club Songs chart.

She is currently listed among Billboards 8 Greatest of All Time Top Dance Club Artists, and she was ranked number three in Billboards Top Dance Artists of the Decade.

She is especially popular in the gay community and is an outspoken supporter of LGBT rights, frequently performing at pride rallies and charity events for pro-LGBT organizations throughout the U.S.

After competing in Miss America, Kristine W moved to Las Vegas, where she regularly performed at the Las Vegas Hilton and won “Las Vegas Entertainer of the Year” for several years.

Kristine W was recognized by the city of Las Vegas for her record-breaking number of shows, which led to June 28 being officially designated as Kristine W Day by the state of Nevada.

Those performances led to her first record deal and subsequent debut single, “Feel What You Want”, marking the singer's first of 17 #1s on the Billboard Dance Club Songs chart.

Kristine W is also tied for third place with Beyoncé for the most consecutive #1 hits with nine.

The songs she would record with them eventually became the material for her first album, The Perfect Beat, self-released in 1994.

It was in Las Vegas that Kristine found success headlining her own show at the Las Vegas Hilton, winning the “Las Vegas Entertainer of the Year” award for several years.

Released in 1994, her debut single quickly became a hit, receiving worldwide acclaim and becoming her first #1 on the Billboard Dance Club Songs chart in the U.S. “Feel What You Want” was also a massive success in the UK, reaching #1 on the Official Chart Company's Top 40 Chart.

Kristine wrote the lyrics for the song in response to the passing of her stepfather, stating in an interview, “He was my mentor, really, and one of my heroes.

And he died of an aneurysm really suddenly.

So, that was really feeling his loss.

That song just made me think about everything from religion to pollution to the planet.

I wove a lot of things that I was feeling into that song.” Following the release of the single and subsequent interviews, many interviewers "butchered" Kristine Weitz' last name; it was therefore suggested by the president of the label she was signed to that she should instead go by Kristine W.

Culturally, “Feel What You Want” became hugely popular in the LGBT community and in gay dance clubs.

“That became their mantra.

After the Hilton tore down their 200-seat live venue and replaced it with a 500-seat nightclub in 1995, Kristine continued to perform for 2 to 3 shows per night, leading a 14-piece band.

The act was called Kristine W's Come See the Music, and they performed until 1999, by which time their residency at the Vegas Hilton spanned 8 years in total.

On June 28, 1999, the governor and entertainment director for the city of Las Vegas officially recognized Kristine as having performed more live shows at the Las Vegas Hilton than any other performer in its history, including Elvis Presley, and officially designated June 28 "Kristine W Day" in the state of Nevada.

During her residency, the president of British label Champion Records heard Kristine W perform at the Hilton, which lead to the label signing the artist.

She consequently traveled to London, a move Kristine has called “a leap of faith”, where she recorded her very first single “Feel What You Want” in a day.

In addition, her album The Power of Music is one of only three albums in the history of the chart to produce at least seven No. 1s from one album (Katy Perry's Teenage Dream [2010] also had seven, and Rihanna's Anti [2016] had eight).

Kristine W was born in Pasco, Washington, where she and her three siblings were raised by her mother, a jazz singer and guitarist who went by the name Donna Lee.

Kristine W expressed an interest in music at a very young age.

Her grandmother was a classically trained violinist and pianist who taught Kristine how to play the piano.

At age 9, Kristine also began playing the saxophone, and it was from her mother that Kristine developed an interest in jazz.

Growing up, Kristine would regularly perform in church and for seniors at a local retirement home, which she has stated helped her to overcome her stage fright.

Regarding her musical influence, Kristine W fell in love with house music after hearing it played frequently in Canada when her mother would perform at resorts there.

From an early age, it was clear Kristine had an aptitude for performing.

Throughout middle and high school, Kristine frequently competed in talent shows, and she won numerous awards in the Northwest after competing in jazz choir ensembles as an improvisational soloist.

At age 16, she won a state talent show singing the Donna Summer song, “Last Dance”.

This led her to enter pageants, which she excelled at.

After winning the titles of Miss Tri-Cities and Miss Washington, Kristine competed in the Miss America pageant, where she won a preliminary swimsuit and NFT award.

Her winnings were designated for education, so she enrolled at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas and began pursuing her musical dreams.

Her mentor, John R. Lewis, helped Kristine W to form a band called Kristine and the Sting, with whom she recorded an indie album called Show and Tell. The band was a local favorite, amassing numerous awards.

After the release of Show and Tell, Kristine began traveling to California to work with an R&B production house.