Christopher Ward

Christopher William Ward is a Canadian songwriter, musician and broadcaster. He was one of the fist VeeJays in Notth America at CITY-TV Canada's MuchMusic. Ward started his career in broadcasting during college and soon moved into songwriting, performing and producing. Though he released three of his own albums (1978/Spark of Desire, 1981/Time Stands Still, 1987.Christopher Ward EP), he is best known for his songwriting expertise including the 1988 #1 Billboard single "Black Velvet" performed by his then-girlfriend Allanah Myles (in fact he and collaborator David Tyson wrote most of Myles' first two albums). He received the Juno award for Songwriter of the Year in 1990. Ward has written for a wide variety of performers including Hilary Duff, Diana Ross,The Backstreet Boys, Wynonna Judd, Amanda Marshall, Tina Arena, Peter Cetera, Anne Murray and Meredith Brooks.His songs were also featured in Cirque du Soleil's tribute to Vaudeville, 'Banana Shpeel'. In his early days, Ward was a member of Second City, along with a seventeen year old Mike Myers. Myers was a frequent guest on City Limits when Ward was the show's host. In the '90s Ward appeared in the 'Austin Powers' movies as a band member of the semi-fictional group Ming Tea, along with Mike Myers, Matthew Sweet, and Susannah Hoffs (The Bangles). Ward continues to write music and several books, including the critically acclaimed non-fiction, docu-novel, "Is This Live? Inside the Wild Early Years of MuchMusic, The Nation's Music Station" (Random House LLC). Ward continues to live between Toronto, Ontario (Canada) and Los Angeles, California (USA).