Katrina and the Waves

Katrina and the Waves was an English pop rock band, best known for their 1985 hit "Walking on Sunshine" and their 1997 Eurovision Song Contest victory with the song "Love Shine a Light".

Originally known as The Waves, played in and around Cambridge, England from 1975 to 1977, but never issued any recordings, and eventually, broke up.

Mama's Cookin', a pop cover band, was founded in 1978 featuring American Katrina Leskanich on vocals and keyboards, and her then-boyfriend Vince de la Cruz on vocals and lead guitar. In late 1980, Alex Cooper joined the band on drums, with Bob Jakins on bass. They would cover songs by American acts such as Heart, Foreigner, Linda Ronstadt, and ZZ Top.

The band would rename themselves as the Waves as made their initial recorded appearances on a 1982 single "Nightmare"/"Hey, War Pig!". The Waves then issued their debut EP Shock Horror later in 1982. Around this time, bassist Jakins left the band andwas not replaced and the band was renamed Katrina and the Waves.

Katrina and The Waves' first album Walking On Sunshine was released only in Canada and the album garnered enough critical attention and radio play to merit a Canadian tour. In 1984, the group released a follow-up album, Katrina and the Waves 2, in Canada. Also, their song “Going Down to Liverpool” was covered by the Bangles.

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. 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". They were nominated for a Grammy award for "Best New Artist". A follow-up single to "Walking on Sunshine" called "Do You Want Crying" also became a top 40 US hit reaching No. 37 in the late summer of 1985.

The band's follow-up album, Waves, did not meet with the same measure of success, but did have two hits with "Is That It?" and "Sun Street".

In 1989, Break of Hearts was released and featured a harder, more rock-oriented effort than their previous releases. The album included "That's the Way" and "Rock 'n' Roll Girl".

Throughout the nineties, Katrina and the Waves recorded fairly steadily, though most releases were available only in continental Europe and/or Canada, and they issued no charting singles. They also recorded the song "We Gotta Get Out of This Place" with Eric Burdon for the TV series China Beach in 1990. They would win the 1997 Eurovision Song Contest for the United Kingdom on with the song "Love Shine a Light".

The band dissolved to pursue individual careers in 1999.