Walter Afanasieff (born Vladimir Nikitich Afanasyev; February 10, 1958), formerly nicknamed Baby Love in the 1980s, is an American record producer and songwriter. He was a collaborator with Mariah Carey on her first six studio albums. 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. Personal life Afanasieff was born in São Paulo, Brazil. His father was Russian, while his mother, who was from Harbin, China, was of Russian-Chinese descent. 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, sung by Gladys Knight and co-written by Afanasieff and Walden. 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. The song became the world's best-selling single of 1998. Afanasieff produced and arranged other 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 ("Someday"). 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 created music with Mariah Carey from 1990 to 1998. He had a role in some of Carey's most successful songs, including "Hero", which he co-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.