Walter Afanasieff

Walter Afanasieff (born Vladimir Nikitich Afanasiev; , February 10, 1958 ), formerly nicknamed Baby Love in the 1980s, is an American record producer and songwriter . He was a frequent collaborator of Mariah Carey on her first six studio albums. Afanasieff and Carey co-wrote many songs together, including the number-one singles "Hero", "All I Want for Christmas Is You", "One Sweet Day", and "My All". He won the 1999 Grammy Award in the Record of the Year category for producing "My Heart Will Go On" by Celine Dion, and the 2000 Grammy Award for Producer of the Year, Non-Classical.

Early life Afanasieff was born in São Paulo, Brazil. When Afanasieff was four or five, his family moved to the United States.

Career 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 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 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,

One of Afanasieff's biggest hits as a producer was "My Heart Will Go On", the theme tune to the 1997 film Titanic, sung by Celine Dion. Afanasieff produced and arranged other motion picture soundtracks, including Disney's Beauty and the Beast (the Celine Dion/Peabo Bryson title-track duet), Carey and Afanasieff also wrote "One Sweet Day", a duet between Carey and Boyz II Men, which held the record for the longest run at number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 (16 weeks) for 23 years; the record was matched in 2017 by "Despacito", and broken by "Old Town Road" in 2019. The song was nominated for the 1996 Grammy Awards for Record of the Year and Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals, and received the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers Song of the Year Award for 1996. In 1994, Carey released the Christmas song "All I Want for Christmas Is You", composed by Afanasieff and herself. As of December 2018, the song has earned cumulative worldwide sales of over 14 million copies.

In 2009, Afanasieff started working with Russian singer Yulia Nachalova. Their album Wild Butterfly was released in 2012 on iTunes. They later produced a video "Zhdi menya" ("Wait for Me") in Russian, released on iTunes in 2015.

In 2014, Afanasieff became head of the composers/producers department at Isina, a worldwide talent search and development mentorship for those seeking to pursue a career in music.

In 2015, he became one of the mentors of the Russian TV project Glavnaya Stsena ("Main Stage"), the Russian version of The X Factor.

Personal life Afanasieff married TV personality and entrepreneur Katie Cazorla in 2017. They own the Kookaburra Lounge Comedy and Music Club in Hollywood, California.

Awards 1999 Grammy Award in the Record of the Year category for producing "My Heart Will Go On" by Celine Dion 2000 Grammy Award in the Producer of the Year, Non-Classical category

Discography