Christopher Ward (songwriter)

Christopher William Ward (born 28 July 1949) is a Canadian songwriter and broadcaster, known as a former long-standing on-air personality at MuchMusic, Canada's music video network, where he and J. D. Roberts were among the first video jockeys in 1984. Ward was a judge on The Next Star which was a Canadian reality television show on YTV.

Born in Toronto, Ontario, Ward began his music career in the early 1970s while attending Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario where he was a member of the school's campus radio station.^[1]

Some of Ward's early television appearances began in 1978 on the CBC children's series Catch Up, as leader of the show's band.^[2] He also played a minor role as a musician in an episode of The Kids of Degrassi Street alongside Alannah Myles in 1984.^[2]

Before MuchMusic launched, Ward hosted a weekend, all-night video program called City Limits on CITY-TV in Toronto.^[2] On Friday and Saturdays, from midnight to 6 a.m., Ward broke ground as Canada's first "veejay".^[3] The show was broadcast from CITY-TV's old Queen Street East studios and apart from playing the latest music videos, hosted guests. Bands such as Bon Jovi and actors like Mike Myers—playing his Wayne's World character^[4] long before Saturday Night Live made it famous—added to the prototype of what MuchMusic would become.^[3] The show also had "video clip" contest segments which gave winners prizes to special events like movie debuts.^{[citation needed]} Broadcast only in the Toronto region, it was a major way music videos were introduced to the Southern Ontario public.^{[citation needed]} (MTV, the American television network, was not broadcast in Canada due to regulatory laws protecting Canadian content until 2006.) When the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) granted a broadcast licence for an all-music channel to begin in 1984, CHUM-CITY won the lucrative rights. The application process to the Commission included Ward's current show as evidence of experience in broadcasting music video entertainment.^{[citation needed]}

During five years on MuchMusic, Ward interviewed artists like Paul McCartney, Tina Turner, Peter Gabriel, Leonard Cohen, and Kate Bush.^{[citation needed]} While with the network, he hosted another show titled City Limits that spotlighted alternative music.^{[citation needed]} Even after his departure from MuchMusic in the late 1980s, he was still involved in the channel off-and-on, most notably as Charles de Camembert, host of the annual Fromage specials.^{[citation needed]}

In 2008, Ward became a judge on YTV's The Next Star for its first four seasons until 2011.^[5]

Ward has written many songs for artists such as Hilary Duff, Diana Ross, Backstreet Boys, Wynonna Judd, Amanda Marshall, Tina Arena, Peter Cetera, Anne Murray and Meredith Brooks.^[6] His best-known song is the Billboard number one single "Black Velvet",^[7][8] recorded by Alannah Myles. "Black Velvet" was named the No. 49 song in Bob Mersereau's book The Top 100 Canadian Singles.^[5] Ward has released several of his own recordings, including the singles "Once in a Longtime" (1977) and "Maybe Your Heart" (1978) (both co-written with his longtime friend Stephen Stohn, executive producer of Degrassi: The Next Generation and Instant Star) and "Boys and Girls" (1987).^{[citation needed]} The music video for "Boys and Girls" featured Alannah Myles, and Mike Myers in an early version of his "Wayne Campbell" character.^{[citation needed]}

The promotional tour for Time Stands Still (released on House of Lords Records/distributed by WEA) included David Wipper on guitar and Billy Idol bassist Steven Webster, and featured pianist Antonio Salci on keyboards.^{[9][better source needed]}

Starting in 1997, Ward became a member of Ming Tea, the tongue-in-cheek celebrity rock band assembled by fellow Canadian Mike Myers for the first and third Austin Powers films. Group members included Susanna Hoffs and Matthew Sweet and performed the faux-sixties songs "BBC" and "Daddy Wasn't There".^{[citation needed]}

Recent work (much of it in collaboration with Rob Wells Luke McMaster, Greg Johnston and Fred St-Gelais)^{[citation needed]} includes songs for Alexz Johnson in the TV series Instant Star, with soundtrack albums for the four seasons of the show.^{[citation needed]} Along with Rob Wells and Fred St-Gelais, he has worked with Lindsay Robins.^{[citation needed]} Ward songs were featured on two Degrassi - The Next Generation projects, Degrassi Takes Manhattan and Degrassi Goes Hollywood.^{[citation needed]} His songs were featured in Cirque du Soleil's tribute to Vaudeville, 'Banana Shpeel'.^[5]

• Mac in the City of Lights (Dundurn Press, 2013)
• Dead Brilliant (Dundurn Press, 2014).^[3]

• List of Canadian musicians

• Official Christopher Ward website
• Christopher Ward discography at Discogs
• Christopher Ward at IMDb
• Entry at canadianbands.com
• The Canadian Encyclopedia: Alannah Myles (reference to Christopher Ward)