Katrina formerly of Katrina & The Waves

Katrina Leskanich is the former lead singer from the Grammy nominated band, Katrina & The Waves. The band got their first break in 1984 when The Bangles covered their song, ‘Going Down to Liverpool’.

In 1985 ‘Walking on Sunshine’ was a top ten hit all around the globe and has since featured in countless advertisements and films including, High Fidelity, Secret of My Success, American Psycho and Walking on Sunshineand it’s been covered by Dolly Parton and was a mash up with Beyonce’s ‘Halo’ sung by the Glee cast. Follow up hits were, ‘Do You Want Crying’ (US Top 40), ‘Sun Street’ (UK Top 30), ‘That’s The Way’ (US #16). Katrina also sang backup vocals on ‘Torn’ by Natalie Imbruglio and has recorded songs with Eric Burdon and Rick Wakeman.

In 1997 Katrina and the Waves’ ‘Love Shine a Light’ won the Eurovision Song Contest with the largest ever margin, followed by an unprecedented four consecutive appearances on Top of The Pops and a No. 3 in the UK Charts.

Following the split with the Waves in 1999 Katrina pursued an alternative career on radio and TV. She was a TV presenter on Watchdog on BBC1 and had her own show on BBC Radio 2 – where she presented a three-hour show, five days a week. This was followed by a stint in musical theatre, where Katrina played the lead role (the songwriter Ellie Greenwich) in Leader of the Pack, singing some of the songs that had influenced her as a young singer.

Katrina published her first book – Peggy Lee Loves London: My London Guide (Metropoodle Press 2013) a quirky London guide featuring her toy poodle, Peggy Lee.

In 2014 Katrina released her first studio album in 10 years - ‘Blisland’ to celebrate the 30th anniversary of ‘Walking on Sunshine’ and toured South Africa and North America in 2014 and 2015.

In 2016 Katrina performed on BBC TV’s Eurovision: You Decide and toured Sweden and Australia on the Totally 80s Tour in the summer.

Katrina toured the USA with the Retro Futura Tour again in 2017 with other 80s artists and released a compilation album, The Very Best of Katrina. In 2018 Katrina released her Christmas single, ‘I Can’t Give You Anything but Love’.

In 2020 Katrina released two new singles, ‘Drive’ and, ‘I Want to Love Again’ followed by the release of her album, Hearts, Loves & Babys (KATSWEB) on 28th August 2020.