Diva Divo - Dance Magazine

Like most daughters, Kristine W takes after her mother.

She certainly inherited her glamour: The former Miss Washington beauty queen and Miss America contestant, a six-foot knockout with a dazzling smile and - today, at least - big furry boots, admits that mom was “totally glamorous, too. She’s the only woman I know who sleeps with her fake eyelashes on!”

She inherited her art of performance: Kristine, probably dance music’s most consistently successful artist (her consecutive #1 hits on the Billboard Club charts shattered a record previously held by Madonna), is a fourth generation entertainer. “Mom worked in nightclubs singing with her guitar,” she recalls of those workhorse days in modest times. “She traveled. My dad died when I was three… my mom had four kids. My grandparents took care of us a lot of the time.”

But compassion, not showmanship, is the most attractive trait that Kristine W inherited from her mother. And empathy, not glamour, is the most beautiful quality that this dance floor diva imparts to her legion of fans. After all, dear old mom set a fabulous example: “My mom had a lot of gay friends,” Kristine tells me as one example of her early introduction to diversity. While Kristine cut her musical teeth as a singer and saxophonist in the glitzy Vegas casino circuit, it was her mother’s progressive attitude in the tiny, farming town of Pasco, WA. that set a standard to follow: “She had a gay man that she befriended, and she pretended to be his girlfriend so the right wing, small-town people would leave him alone,” she shares. “He was a 6^th grade teacher, and she could tell that he might be in jeopardy. Too many questions were being raised about him. She just wanted to protect him, so she pretended to be his girlfriend. I watched her do that for him.”

And sadly, she also watched him suffer: “He was always under siege. If he could have lived an open life, he would have been a much happier person. But not in that community; there were just too many Bible thumpers out there.” It’s a sad story, but thanks to the compassion Kristine’s mother showed, it’s also one with a poignant, albeit bittersweet, ending: “They ended up naming the school after him,” she tells me with a half-smile and a satisfied sense of finality.

Still, that lesson in narrow-minded, small town politics – and the friendship, compassion, and solidarity that it inspired in her mother – has stuck with Kristine throughout her career as a successful, prolific dance music artist. Indeed, when I first meet her in the lobby of Boston’s Hotel Commonwealth, she’s trading goodbye kissies with two gay guys. “Bye boys!” she waves, pecking each pal on the cheek before turning her attention to me and curling up on a stately, high-backed chair. Though she’s sitting on a throne that befits her Dancing Queen stature, she immediately she sets a tone that is warm, intimate, and loving. “That is a fabulous sweater,” she tells me. “Work it!”

Coming from a former Miss America contestant, it’s no small compliment. But Kristine’s dedication to her fanbase – no matter their color, creed, or sexuality - goes beyond simple kindness, charm, and lip service. Indeed, when she’s not working the stage at nightclubs, you can usually find her performing at galas for the Human Rights Organization. “Whenever they ask me, I’m there,” she says, definitively. “They’re amazing and they’re doing an outstanding job… I’m in awe of that organization.”

Something that she’s most proud of, she tells me, is the organization’s work to promote tolerance and respect outside of the usual spheres of influence: “It’s easy in LA, or New York, or San Francisco,” Kristine says of vocalizing the group’s focus on GLBT issues. Rather than preach to the converted, she sees more value in focusing on areas that often go ignored. “They had one in Vegas this year, which was a breakthrough.”

Wait a minute: Las Vegas, home of glitz, glamour, female impersonators and Kristine W… is not gay-friendly? “Vegas is still very ‘cowboy,’” she says. “Cowboy and gangster. It doesn’t leave a lot of room for gay people at all. So the fact that the HRC is moving into areas where’s there resistance, and having success with it… it does my heart good!”

That warm, fuzzy feeling certainly seeps into her music. Unlike many of her dance diva counterparts, Kristine’s songwriting tends to eschew lyrics about traditional subjects (clubbing, sex, partying, sex, heartbreak, sex…) in favor of inspirational anthems with uplifting messages. Let’s not forget “I’ll Be Your Light,” her most recent hit single, which found Kristine singing “I’ll be the song that moves you when all hope is gone / I’ll give you strength to carry on / Burning so bright, I’ll be your light.”

But for the next portion of her musical journey, Kristine takes inspiration to the next level: Her upcoming album The Power of Music. Due for release within a few short months of summer ’07, the album pays tribute to stories Kristine has heard – through fan mail and personal conversations – about the healing, inspirational power of music. Not just her own, mind you, but music – in general - as a living, breathing, vital force. The best of these stories Kristine has collected will also be immortalized in an accompanying book of the same title. And it looks like her idealism if paying off: She’s about to shoot a music video for “Walk Away,” her recent collaboration with DJ Tony Moran and the album’s first single.