Meet the Songwriter of “Walking on Sunshine” by Katrina and the Waves

I’m walking on sunshine, whoa / And don’t it feel good!, plays the Katrina and the Waves classic “Walking on Sunshine” against an irresistible beat, punctuated by ear-grabbing woahs and heys. The song was the treasure of 1985 and has since lived on in a number of commercials and advertisements. Who is responsible for such an enduring tune, you ask? Well, “Walking on Sunshine” was an inside job.

Who Wrote It?

The bubbly hit “Walking on Sunshine,” which appeared on Katrina and the Waves’ 1985 self-titled debut, was written by the band’s guitarist and songwriter Kimberley Rew.

He would pen another iconic song for the band, titled “Love Shine a Light.” With the tune, the group won the 1997 Eurovision Song Contest for their native United Kingdom. However, it would be the new wave pop earworm “Walking on Sunshine” that qualified as the band’s overall greatest success.

A song like “Walking on Sunshine,” with its ability to change moods, brighten days and incite a dance move or two, seems like it would come down from the heavens to grace a songwriter’s noggin, but that is not the case with Rew and the Katrina and the Waves tune.

“I’d love to say ‘Walking on Sunshine’ relates to a significant event in my life, like walking out of my front door, seeing a comet and being inspired,” Rew once told The Guardian. “But it’s just a piece of simple fun, an optimistic song, despite us not being outstandingly cheery people. We were a typical young band, insecure and pessimistic. We didn’t have big hair and didn’t look anything like a Motown-influenced group. We didn’t have any credibility or a fanbase in awe of our mystique. We were a second-on-the-bill-at-a-festival-in-Germany pop band. But we had this song.”

The song became a smash hit by coincidence, he explained. “There was an element of synchronicity to how it took off: it came out at the beginning of a very hot summer in 1985,” he shared with the outlet. “We were on our first – and only – American club tour when it entered the charts. Suddenly, whenever we played it, everyone went nuts.”

(Photo by Donna Santisi/Redferns)