Walter Afanasieff - Life and Work

Life and Work

Afanasieff was born Vladimir Nikitich Afanasieff (Russian: Владимир Никитич Афанасьев) in São Paulo, SP, Brazil to Russian parents Nikita and Tatiana. His father is from Leningrad in the Soviet Union and his mother is from Harbin, China. His parents met in Brazil in the early 1950s. Beneath the senior portrait in his high school yearbook, Afanasieff wrote that his goal was to "write and play better than Keith Emerson" of Emerson, Lake & Palmer.

Starting out as a working jazz musician in 1980, Afanasieff initially played keyboards with the jazz/fusion violinist Jean-Luc Ponty. Later, he formed The Warriors with another former Ponty sideman, guitarist Joaquin Lievano, and with leading 1980s music producer/songwriter and drummer Narada Michael Walden, and these experiences gave him the background and confidence to take an active role as a producer.

Walden hired Afanasieff as a staff producer/arranger and began using him as a keyboardist on a large number of recording projects, including Whitney Houston's self-titled debut album released in 1985, which went on to become the artist’s best-selling studio album to date. It was also during this time that Afanasieff and Walden began writing pop songs together. Together with his mentor Narada, Afanasieff’s first major production was the title track of the James Bond movie Licence to Kill, sung by Gladys Knight and co-written by Afanasieff and Walden.

One of Afanasieff’s biggest hits as a producer was the smash hit "My Heart Will Go On", the theme tune to the 1997 film Titanic, sung by Celine Dion. The song became the world’s best-selling single of 1998. Afanasieff produced and arranged other successful motion picture soundtracks, including Disney's Beauty and the Beast (the Celine Dion/Peabo Bryson title-track duet), Aladdin (“A Whole New World”) and The Hunchback of Notre Dame (“Some Day”). Afanasieff was also the producer and arranger for “Go the Distance”, the Oscar-nominated Michael Bolton song from the animated film Hercules.

Afanasieff performs on most of his recordings (mainly keyboards, synthesizers and drum programming).

Afanasieff spent a significant part of his career creating music with Mariah Carey, and had a role in many of Carey’s most successful songs, including “Hero”, which he produced, co-wrote, and on which he played all of the music tracks. “Hero” was released as the second single from Carey’s album Music Box, and reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart on December 25, 1993. It remained at the top of the chart for four weeks. "Hero" has become one of Carey’s signature songs, and Carey closes many of her concerts with it. Carey and Afanasieff also wrote "One Sweet Day", a duet between Carey and Boyz II Men, which holds the record for the longest run at number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 (16 weeks total). The song was nominated for the 1996 Grammy Awards for Record of the Year and Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals, and received the ASCAP Song of the Year Award for 1996.

It was announced in June 2012 that Afanasieff will collaborate with Mariah Carey for the first time in 16 years.