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Katrina Leskanich was born on April 10, 1960 in Topeka, Kansas USA. Her father being a Colonel in the US Air Force, Katrina and her five siblings (four sisters and one brother) were moved from Kansas to New Mexico, to California, to Alabama, to Georgia, to Florida, to Massachusetts, to Nebraska, to Germany, Holland and finally England in 1976 where Katrina has remained.
In 1979, Katrina formed the group Mama's Cookin' along with Vince de la Cruz and played the US Air Force bases. At this time Katrina acted as manager and agent. The band covered songs by Heart, Linda Ronstadt, and The Eagles as well as an assortment of 60’s bands, girl groups, Stax, Motown and obscure R &
B.
In 1983 Katrina and Vince enlisted Englishman Alex Cooper on drums and his old band mate from the Cambridge University days, Kimberley Rew on guitar.
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Katrina and the Waves were born. A small deal was procured through Attic Records, Toronto, Canada and a major deal came from Capital-EMI when the Bangles covered the band’s “Going Down To Liverpool” to great acclaim.
In 1985 "Walking On Sunshine" was released on Capitol Records and allowed Katrina and the Waves worldwide fame.
A Grammy nomination followed for best new artist.
As well as being covered by Dolly Parton the song has gone on to be featured in countless movies and television commercials.
The hits continued with Do You Want Crying, Que te Quiero, Sun Street, Tears For Me, Honey Lamb, Rock and Roll Girl and That’s the Way, which reached top 10 in the USA.
Starship covered the band’s Rock Myself To Sleep.
Katrina sings back up for Natalie Imbruglia on the smash hit “Torn” and is a featured vocalist on Rick Wakeman’s Return to the Centre of the Earth as well as dueting with Eric Burdon on a new recording of We Gotta Get Out of This Place.
In 1997 Katrina and the Waves won the Eurovision Song Contest for the UK by the greatest margin in the history of the event with the song "Love Shine A Light". The song reached #2 in the British charts and the band performed an unprecedented four weeks running on Top Of The Pops.
After one final tour of Europe, Scandinavia and the Baltics the band parted in 1998.
Katrina was asked to present her own show on BBC Radio 2 where she doubled the ratings and continued on air for two years in her regular night time spot.
An offer for the lead role as Ellie Greenwich (song writer to 60’s girl groups) gave Katrina the chance to act live on stage for a year in the production of the Leader of the Pack.
Katrina teamed up with Phil Thornalley (co-writer of Torn) to co-write and co-produce her first commercially available solo
CD since the split with the Waves. The dynamic result of "Katrina
Leskanich" shows Katrina has retained her pop sensibilities but with added emotional resonance and tone.
The CD "Katrina Leskanich" is on general release for 2006.
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