  katrina and the waves were an english rock band best known for the 1985 hit "walking on sunshine". they also won the 1997 eurovision song contest with the song "love shine a light." ==history== ===pre-history (1975â80)=== the band's earliest incarnation was as the waves, a group that played in and around cambridge, england, from 1975 to 1977 and featured guitarist kimberley rew and drummer alex cooper. this incarnation of the waves never issued any recordings, and broke up when rew left to join the soft boys. a more direct ancestor of katrina and the waves was the band mama's cookin', a pop cover band hailing from feltwell, england. this band, founded in 1978, featured american katrina leskanich on vocals and keyboards, and her then-boyfriend (and fellow american) vince de la cruz on vocals and lead guitar. by late 1980, alex cooper had joined the band on drums, with bob jakins on bass. mama's cookin' proceeded to gig steadily in england over the next two years, specialising in covers of songs by american acts such as heart, foreigner, linda ronstadt, and zz top. ===early days as the waves (1981â82)=== when the soft boys broke up in 1981, rew contacted his old wave-mate cooper to see about renewing their musical partnership. cooper convinced rew to join mama's cookin', and the five-piece group (leskanich/rew/cooper/de la cruz/jakins) was quickly renamed the waves after the band rew and cooper had been in together in the mid-1970s. the waves were initially fronted by singer/songwriter/guitarist rew, who brought a wealth of original material to the band. leskanich, meanwhile, originally only sang lead vocals on the cover tunes in the band's repertoire. however, over the first year of the waves' existence, rew began to write material for leskanich to sing, and she was soon the primary vocalist. the waves made their initial recorded appearances on a 1982 single ("nightmare"/"hey, war pig!"); both tracks were included on the 1982 rew solo album called the bible of bop. the waves then
Attic_Records_(Canada)_artists British_Eurovision_Song_Contest_entrants English_New_Wave_musical_groups English_pop_music_groups English_rock_music_groups Eurovision_Song_Contest_entrants_of_1997 Eurovision_Song_Contest_winners Music_in_Cambridge Musical_groups_disestablished_in_1999 Musical_groups_established_in_1981