Katrina and The Waves
Katrina and the Waves were one of the most successful acts to perform in the Eurovision Song Contest, with a long and successful career preceding their participation. After achieving the UK's 5th victory at the Contest, 'Love Shine A Light' gave Katrina and the Waves their best-ever chart position, peaking at number 3 in the UK, and becoming a hit across Europe.The group, featuring American singer Katrina Leskanich and the band The Waves, trace their roots back to 1978 when Katrina joined. Their beginnings were humble, performing small gigs in the UK. Fellow band member Kimberley Rew led the band before gradually handing over the singing responsibilities to Katrina.
Initially, the band had success in Canada with their first album, Walking On Sunshine, in 1983. Spurred on by that success, the album was reworked and Walking On Sunshine was released in 1985 all over the world, become a huge hit including in the US and the UK where it reached the top 10 in both countries.
After this success, the band experienced some downtime until Kimberley wrote the song Love Shine A Light, which went on to become the United Kingdom's entry in 1997. The song won by a landslide with a (then) record margin of 70 points over Ireland, which came second. This record has since been broken by Norway's Alexander Rybak.
Since the competition, Katrina has gone on to present the Congratulations 50th-anniversary of the Eurovision Song Contest in Copenhagen in 2005 and, in the same year, participated in the Swedish national final, Melodifestivalen.
