Katrina and the Waves

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Image:Katrina-and-the-waves.jpg Katrina and the Waves were a pop rock band of the 1980s, best known for their smash hit "Walking on Sunshine".

Formed in 1981 in Cambridge, England, the Waves were fronted by American-born singer Katrina Leskanich until she left the group in 1999. Their lead guitarist is Kimberley Rew, formerly of the Soft Boys.

In 1985 the group had a worldwide hit with the song "Walking on Sunshine", still popularised today as a feel-good summer track, used in numerous feature films and adverts. A Grammy award nominee for "Best New Artist" followed, and several seasons of touring were followed by moderate sales of new releases.

By the late nineties, the band had all but disappeared, but briefly surged back into the limelight by winning the Eurovision Song Contest for the United Kingdom on 3rd May 1997 with the song "Love Shine a Light". Reacting to the win, Katrina said it was the second landslide victory in a week; the song won by a record points margin, and Tony Blair had won the 1997 British general election two days previously.

Six years after the original band split up, Katrina formed a new group in an attempt to repeat the Waves' Eurovision triumph, this time in Sweden. At the 2005 Melodifestivalen, the competition to select Sweden's entry, the group failed to qualify directly from the fourth semi-final of the competition, and were eventually eliminated in a 'second-chance semi'. Having planned to call themselves "Katrina and the New Wave", they dubbed themselves "Katrina and the Nameless" after legal objections from the original Waves.

Leskanich was quoted in the New York Times reacting to sharing a name with the 2005 hurricane whose storm surge devastated New Orleans:

"The first time I opened the paper and saw 'Katrina kills 9,' it was a bit of a shock. It's a very sad situation, but I'm sure the strength and good will of the survivors will turn it around. 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."

The MSNBC news program Countdown with Keith Olbermann dubbed its coverage of the hurricane "Katrina and the waves", and the name appeared in numerous headlines and blog posts.