Kim Wilde about her sudden success: 'This is what I've been waiting for'

Success didn't exactly overwhelm Kim. During a year in art college she mostly waited for an opportunity. Well, the Wilde family pulled together and "Kids in America" seems to be the start of a promising career in pop music.

It had to be very strange if Kim didn't end up in pop music. The Wilde's house, some 30 kilometres north of London was always full of music. Father Marty Wilde got famous in the fifties and sixties as a rocker, mother also sang and brother Ricky, 19 and one year younger than Kim, also proved to be a talent on keyboards and as a composer. For Kim it was just a question of waiting. She did have to spend a year at art college after highschool, because no good opportunity had come around, but that she would end up in pop music in the end, Kim never doubted that. She was often in the studio anyway. Together with her mother she did backing vocals for her father's records and later for brother Ricky. It was Ricky, too, who asked her to sing the song "Kids in America". Then things went quickly. "You don't really dare to expect success", says Kim Wilde, "but I hoped for it anyway. Things are going really fast now, but I think I'm up for it. The travelling, the hotels, it's all new for me now. But I always wanted it, and I think I won't get bored with it. What surprises me most is that "Kids in America" is doing so well everywhere in Europe. I thought there would be some kind of language barrier, but it doesn't show. You don't need to look for much in the lyric anyway, it's just a pop song."
Since "Kids in America" got to number two in the English charts, things have changed in the Wilde residence. Kim's career is the most important thing now. Father Marty is performing less in nightclubs to concentrate on writing songs together with brother Ricky. For now mostly for Kim, but Hot Chocolate has also profited from their talent. Mother does the business side of things for now. The second single, "Chequered love" is already out in England and work has started on the album. When it's done a band has to be formed. Kim leaves it to brother Ricky, who is responsible for the music. During the interview she looks at the polaroids the photographer has taken of her. She is satisfied, she looks great on them, but it's not hard when you look like that.
"How do you like this one?", she says.
"Neat", I say.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, er, neat"
"You mean that I'm not on there naked or with more buttons open. Well, I think I look sexy enough on that. But I'm a singer, you know, and no sex symbol. It is important to look good of course, I am an entertainer. But I have to look good for women too. Like Debbie Harry for instance, boys think she's sexy apparently, but I like her as well, as a woman and as a stage personality. I want to be a singer most of all, and I'm very wary of being exploited as a sex symbol. But I guess it helps to look like this."