Artist · chart history
Katrina and the Waves
Band Cambridge United Kingdom Active 1981–1999 British‐American rock band
Katrina and the Waves formed in 1981 in Cambridge, United Kingdom and was active until 1999. Katrina and the Waves has 21 chart appearances on 21 radio countdowns from 11 stations on RockLists, spanning 1985–2026. The most successful song on radio countdowns is “Walking On Sunshine”, which appears on 20 lists and was voted number one once. In total the artist has topped 1 countdown. The station that charted Katrina and the Waves most often is CD101 (Columbus, OH), with 7 appearances. The artist’s biggest year on year-end countdowns was 1985.
Katrina and the Waves came together in Cambridge in 1981, with Katrina Leskanich out front and Kimberley Rew, Vince de la Cruz and Alex Cooper behind her, and they played the kind of pop rock that treats a sunny day as a call to arms: jangling guitars, a backbeat built for handclaps and a singer with more lung power than half the heavy metal bands on the radio.
The song that made their name was "Walking on Sunshine", the title track of their 1983 album, a burst of brass-knuckle cheerfulness that no amount of repetition has managed to wear down. The same record held "Que Te Quiero", and the band's rise landed them a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist in 1985.
They had one more twist in them. In 1997 they won the Eurovision Song Contest with "Love Shine a Light", and two years later, in 1999, the band came to an end.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs by Katrina and the Waves on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Walking On Sunshine | 20 | #1 | 1 | 1985 | |
| 2 | Que Te Quiero | 1 | #28 | – | 1985 |
Albums with charting songs
Where each song was first released, from MusicBrainz.
Comments
Log in or create a free account to join the conversation about Katrina and the Waves.
No comments yet. Be the first to share your thoughts.