Christopher Ward (songwriter)

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For other persons of the same name, see Christopher Ward.

Christopher Ward is a Canadian songwriter and broadcaster, best known as a former long-standing on-air personality at MuchMusic, Canada's music video network, where he and J.D. Roberts were the first two video jockeys in 1984. He hosted City Limits during his time with the network, a series that spotlighted alternative music. Even after his departure from MuchMusic in the late 1980s, he was still involved in the channel off-and-on, most notably as the faux-French-accented host of the annual Fromage specials until he was replaced by Ed the Sock.

He has written many songs with artists as diverse as Hilary Duff, Diana Ross, Wynonna Judd, Amanda Marshall, Tina Arena, Anne Murray and Meredith Brooks. His best known song to date is the Billboard number one single "Black Velvet", recorded by his then-girlfriend Alannah Myles. Ward has also 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 the executive producer of Instant Star) and "Boys and Girls" (1987). The music video for "Boys and Girls" featured both Alannah Myles and comedian Mike Myers in an early version of his "Wayne Campbell" character.

Starting in 1997, Ward became a member of Ming Tea, the tongue-in-cheek celebrity rock band assembled by fellow Canadian Mike Myers (whose association with Ward dated back to before the MuchMusic years) for the first and third Austin Powers films; the group performed the faux-sixties songs "BBC" and "Daddy Wasn't There".

Recent work (much of it in collaboration with Rob Wells) includes songs for Alexz Johnson in the TV series Instant Star, with two albums so far - Songs from Instant Star and Songs from Instant Star Two. Along with Rob Wells, he has also been working with Lindsay Robins.