Katrina Leskanich: Still Walking on Sunshine 

August 18, 2026

Some songs don’t just define the ‘80s — they practically become part of the atmosphere. You hear them in grocery stores, movie soundtracks, wedding receptions, cruise ship decks and baseball stadiums. They become so woven into everyday life that you almost stop noticing how perfectly constructed they are. 

Then one day “Walking on Sunshine” comes on again, and suddenly you remember: Oh right, this thing is a rocket ship. 

That’s the enduring magic of Katrina and the Waves and frontwoman Katrina Leskanich, whose voice helped power one of the most joyful songs of the decade. 

But reducing Katrina to one song undersells both her career and her place in ‘80s music history. Her sets on The 80s Cruise will unleash a slew of songs built for warm nights and crowded dance floors. “Going Down to Liverpool” — a Katrina and the Waves original that was famously covered by the Bangles — is always a highlight. So is “Love, Shine a Light,” which won the 1997 Eurovision Song Contest. Be prepared for a night of bliss. 

“Anything is fun on The 80s Cruise, isn’t it?” she told me during a podcast chat in May. “Even though I’m there to work, I’ve got a smile on my face.” – Listen to full interview here.

Born in Kansas but raised largely in England, Leskanich channeled her hero Chrissie Hynde of The Pretenders and brought a fascinating transatlantic quality to the band. Katrina and the Waves sounded British, American, garage-rock and pop all at once. Their music pulled from new wave, surf rock, power pop and good old-fashioned rock ’n’ roll energy. If many ‘80s acts felt polished to the point of sterility, Katrina and the Waves always sounded gloriously alive. 

That starts with Katrina herself. 

She has never carried herself like a distant pop star. Onstage today, she projects something more approachable — a mix of punk spirit, rock-band grit and genuine enthusiasm. There’s always been something refreshingly unmanufactured about her performances. Even at the height of MTV fame, she looked less like someone posing for the camera and more like someone thrilled to still be holding the microphone. 

And then there’s that voice. 

Big without being overpowering. Raspy without losing melody. Joyful without sounding lightweight. 

When Katrina sings “I’m walking on sunshine, whoa-oh,” it feels less sung than set free. 

Released in 1985, “Walking on Sunshine” eventually climbed to No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100 and became one of the defining singles of the decade. But the funny thing about the song is how hard it is to explain why it works so well. On paper, it should almost be too cheerful. Too bouncy. Too relentlessly upbeat. Ironically enough, that’s what early audiences thought of the song, Katrina told me. 

“When people used to come and listen to new bands in the early ’80s around the London scene in the UK, they were so sulky, everybody hated everything,” she said. “With a song like ‘Walking on Sunshine,’ we just took it out of the set because it was such a dud. Everybody wanted dreary. They didn’t want sunshiny, smiley songs.” 

The tune, written by bandmate Kimberley Rew, didn’t initially inspire much confidence within the band.  

“We just thought it was awful happy,” she recalled. “I thought the ‘Whoa!’ bit was awful high, but we kind of went with it anyway. At the time, we were doing a tour of all of the military bases around the UK. It was a dance floor emptier; nobody knew what to do with it.” 

Fortunately, record executives heard something audiences initially missed, and super producer Scott Litt would work his magic in refining the sound. It would become a staple in MTV’s early video rotation and begin its climb through the charts. It would famously show up on the soundtracks to movie favorites such as “Secret of My Success” and “High Fidelity.”  

Making the song’s MTV video was less exciting, Katrina admitted to me.  

“We went down to the Thames, which is the major river that runs through London, and just walked along the Thames, and it was February 3,” she recalled. “It was absolutely bloody freezing, and they said, ‘Just act like you’re walking on sunshine, keep smiling, but don’t breathe, because every time you do, then loads of condensation comes out of your mouth. We can see it’s freezing.’ So I’m in a tiny little T-shirt, and they just said, ‘Keep smiling.’ It’s the fakest smile I’ve ever seen.” 

Before the fame and the admittedly fake smile, Katrina and the Waves spent years grinding through clubs and developing a live sound rooted in classic rock energy. Their sound fused jangly guitars, surf influences and power-pop hooks into something that felt simultaneously retro and modern. 

Songs like “Do You Want Crying,” and “Red Wine and Whiskey” all carried that same DNA: hooks big enough for pop radio but played with the energy of a bar band that still wanted to sweat a little. 

The group also deserves credit for helping bridge the gap between late-’70s new wave and the brighter, cleaner sound that would dominate mid-’80s pop. They weren’t synth-heavy futurists. They weren’t gloomy post-punks. They represented something more organic and immediate — music powered by guitars, live drums and sheer personality. 

Watching her live today, there’s still a looseness and warmth that many veteran artists lose over time. She jokes with crowds. She attacks songs with real energy. And unlike artists who seem burdened by their biggest hits, Katrina appears to genuinely enjoy the connection those songs still create. 

“I always kind of sort of gently acknowledge it,” she said. “It just takes me directly back to 1985 and hearing it on American radio.”  

If you hear the notes in your head as you read this, you know the magic. Nostalgia only works if the artist and the audience both still believe in the material. Katrina does. 

When she takes the stage on The 80s Cruise, don’t expect a museum-piece performance but instead brace yourself for more of a celebration — the kind where people unexpectedly find themselves dancing harder than they planned to five minutes earlier. 

You can intellectualize a lot of ‘80s music. You can analyze production techniques, fashion trends, chart statistics and cultural movements. But some songs bypass all that and head straight for pure feeling. 

That’s what Katrina Leskanich has always understood better than most. 

Sometimes the smartest thing a song can do is make the world feel lighter for three and a half minutes. 

That’s what walking on sunshine feels like. 

(Steve Spears is the co-host and creator of the Stuck in the ‘80s podcast. His first book – “Stuck in the ‘80s: 20 Years of Conversations with Pop Culture Icons Who Defined a Decade” – is an Amazon top seller. Steve and Brad Williams host Big 80s Trivia each year on The 80s Cruise.)