Kristine W
Kristine Elizabeth Weitz, widely known by her stage name Kristine W, is an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and entrepreneur. She is most widely known as a dance music artist. Born and raised in Pasco, Washington, she found early success competing in pageants and talent contests, winning Miss Washington 1981 and a Preliminary Swimsuit Award as well as a Non-Finalist Talent award in the Miss America pageant. Kristine W is now one of the most popular dance club artists of all time, with 17 No. 1s to date on the Billboard Dance Club Songs chart. She is currently listed among Billboard's 8 Greatest of All Time Top Dance Club Artists, and she was ranked number three in Billboards Top Dance Artists of the Decade. She is especially popular in the gay community and is an outspoken supporter of LGBT rights, frequently performing at pride rallies and charity events for pro-LGBT organizations throughout the U.S.
After competing in Miss America, Kristine W moved to Las Vegas, where she regularly performed at the Las Vegas Hilton and won 'Las Vegas Entertainer of the Year' for several years. Kristine W was recognized by the city of Las Vegas for her record-breaking number of shows, which led to June 28 being officially designated as Kristine W Day by the state of Nevada. Those performances led to her first record deal and subsequent debut single, “Feel What You Want”, marking the singer's first of 17 No. 1s on the Billboard Dance Club Songs chart. Kristine W is also tied for third place with Beyoncé for the most consecutive No. 1 hits with nine. In addition, her album The Power of Music is one of only three albums in the history of the chart to produce at least seven No. 1s from one album.
Early life
Kristine W was born in Pasco, Washington, where she and her three siblings were raised by her mother, a jazz singer and guitarist who went by the name Donna Lee. Kristine W expressed an interest in music at a very young age. Her grandmother was a classically trained violinist and pianist who taught Kristine how to play the piano. At age 9, Kristine also began playing the saxophone, and it was from her mother that Kristine developed an interest in jazz. Growing up, Kristine would regularly perform in church and for seniors at a local retirement home, which she has stated helped her to overcome her stage fright. Regarding her musical influence, Kristine W fell in love with house music after hearing it played frequently in Canada when her mother would perform at resorts there.From an early age, it was clear Kristine had an aptitude for performing. Throughout middle and high school, Kristine frequently competed in talent shows, and she won numerous awards in the Northwest after competing in jazz choir ensembles as an improvisational soloist. At age 16, she won a state talent show singing the Donna Summer song, “Last Dance”. This led her to enter pageants, which she excelled at. After winning the titles of Miss Tri-Cities and Miss Washington, Kristine competed in the Miss America pageant, where she won a preliminary swimsuit and NFT award. Her winnings were designated for education, so she enrolled at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas and began pursuing her musical dreams. Her mentor, John R. Lewis, helped Kristine W to form a band called Kristine and the Sting, with whom she recorded an indie album called Show and Tell. The band was a local favorite, amassing numerous awards. After the release of Show and Tell, Kristine began traveling to California to work with an R&B production house. The songs she would record with them eventually became the material for her first album, The Perfect Beat, self-released in 1994.
Career
1991–2000: "Feel What You Want" – ''Stronger''
It was in Las Vegas that Kristine found success headlining her own show at the Las Vegas Hilton, winning the 'Las Vegas Entertainer of the Year' award for several years. After the Hilton tore down their 200-seat live venue and replaced it with a 500-seat nightclub in 1995, Kristine continued to perform for 2 to 3 shows per night, leading a 14-piece band. The act was called Kristine W's Come See the Music, and they performed until 1999, by which time their residency at the Vegas Hilton spanned 8 years in total. On June 28, 1999, the governor and entertainment director for the city of Las Vegas officially recognized Kristine as having performed more live shows at the Las Vegas Hilton than any other performer in its history, including Elvis Presley, and officially designated June 28 "Kristine W Day" in the state of Nevada. During her residency, the president of British label Champion Records heard Kristine W perform at the Hilton, which lead to the label signing the artist. She consequently traveled to London, a move Kristine has called "a leap of faith", where she recorded her first single "Feel What You Want" in a day.Released in 1994, her debut single quickly became a hit, receiving worldwide acclaim and becoming her first No. 1 on the Billboard Dance Club Songs chart in the U.S. "Feel What You Want" was also a massive success in the UK, reaching No. 1 on the UK singles chart. Kristine wrote the lyrics for the song in response to the passing of her stepfather, stating in an interview, “He was my mentor, really, and one of my heroes. And he died of an aneurysm really suddenly. So, that was really feeling his loss. That song just made me think about everything from religion to pollution to the planet. I wove a lot of things that I was feeling into that song.” Following the release of the single and subsequent interviews, many interviewers "butchered" Kristine Weitz' last name; it was therefore suggested by the president of the label she was signed to that she should instead go by Kristine W.
Culturally, "Feel What You Want" became hugely popular in the LGBT community and in gay dance clubs. “That became their mantra. ‘Feel what you want it to be, what you want it to feel’ became this massive gay anthem, and I didn't even know that it was. So, that was a surprise. And it was really a cool surprise, because I got this fan base that was amazingly fun and supportive.”
"Feel What You Want" was subsequently featured on her 1996 debut album, Land of the Living, which spawned numerous other No. 1 dance hits for Kristine; “One More Try” and the title track from the album both reached No. 1 on Billboard Dance Club Songs. "Land of the Living" had particular importance to those afflicted with AIDS and was chosen as the album's third single in 1997 because, Kristine says, “It was right at the time when AIDS had stopped becoming a death sentence". Billboard named "One More Try" its Single of the Week, and it was written in Billboard Magazine, "The long-anticipated follow-up to the massive 'Feel What U Want' is a true rarity in dance music. It makes a pensive and poignant lyrical point without clouding the track's overall potential to inspire active twitchin' and twirlin'. Producers Rollo and Rob D. have created a grand disco/house arrangement that allows Kristine to shine like the star she deserves to be". The success of the album led to Kristine W being named the 1997 'Best New Dance Artist' by Billboard. In later years, the song "Feel What You Want" was included in Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories on the Rise FM station.
Kristine's sophomore album, Stronger, was released in 2000 and received commercial and critical acclaim; both of the album's official singles – including the title track – reached No. 1 on Billboard Dance Club Songs, and “Lovin’ You” was featured in an episode of the Showtime television series Queer As Folk. Stylistically, Kristine W expanded on the dance and house music influences prevalent on her first album, this time incorporating more adult contemporary, R&B, and pop influences. About the album's lyrical themes, Kristine has said, “Stronger came about when my grandmother was ailing and when I had my first baby... watching life come into the world and watching life go out was traumatic at the time; I had to be strong for my baby and for my grandmother.”!!
2001–2005: Diagnosis of leukemia and ''Fly Again''
Following the release of Stronger, Kristine W began exhibiting unusual physical symptoms, for which she sought medical advice. No medical abnormalities were detected at the time. However, during a performance in Japan, Kristine experienced persistent bleeding, to the point where friends urged her to again see a doctor, who ordered a blood test. The results came back on Mother's Day of 2001, revealing that the mother of two then-toddlers had Acute Myeloid Leukemia. Kristine was given 30% chance of living and she spent the next year in the UCLA Medical Center. She recounts, “I remember when I was in the hospital at UCLA being treated. I told myself, ‘Okay, when you wrote , you meant it. And now you’ve got to live it. This is for real. This isn’t about words or music—this is about you not being on the planet anymore.”Kristine had a stem cell transplant on September 11, 2001. Regarding the 9/11 terror attacks, Kristine recalls witnessing the second plane hitting the World Trade Center on television from her hospital bed, which she described as “very devastating”. The procedure itself was, fortunately, a success, and her AML is currently in remission.
During her stay in the hospital, Kristine W wrote the songs that would later become her third album, Fly Again. Its creation was cathartic for her, as she stated in an interview, “Fly Again really helped me begin to heal after having leukemia. I'm really thankful for that album because it probably gave me enough fight to keep going. You have to live for something. I have my kids, but my music got me fired up. We shot that video and I saw it for the first time, and I thought, 'I'm going to live.’”
The album Fly Again was released in 2003 and was a commercial and critical success, reaching No. 12 on Billboard Top Dance/Electronic Albums. Two of the album’s four singles, "Some Lovin'" and "Save My Soul", reached No. 1 on the Billboard Dance Club Songs chart immediately following the album's release. The other two singles, "The Wonder of It All" and "Fly Again", reached No. 1 following the subsequent release of remixes for each. "I'll Be Your Light", another song from Stronger, peaking at No. 2 on Billboard Dance Club Songs. Each of the album’s singles, except for the title track, also charted on Dance/Mix Show Airplay.
In 2005, Kristine W performed a duet with notable soul diva Patti LaBelle, which was included on LaBelle's Classic Moments album. The song was a cover of Kristine own's “Land of the Living”.