Date: 8 March 1982
Originally published in: Hitkrant (Netherlands)
Written by: Ton Vingerhoets
She has a cold, Kim Wilde. Not pleasant for a singer, but she will manage, she assures me. In her black trousers, black blouse and the black leather jacket she has draped over her shoulders, she looks ridiculously normal. Not at all like a daughter of a famous rock and roll star, but also not at all like the (almost) world famous singer she is.
Within a few months she achieved this fame with hits like ‘Kids in America’, ‘Chequered love’ and ‘Cambodia’, that climbed to the top in many countries. She was also chosen an international sex symbol.
‘I still recall how unattractive I used to feel. I desperately wanted to be someone else, to be admired and so on. I used to have enormous trouble with the fact that the boys in my school used to be attracted to other girls.’
Great time
This only lasted until Kim was seventeen. “Then everything changed: the people in school started to like me and I suddenly got more friends. A great time, when I look back at it.’ The ugly duckling had turned into a beautiful swan and strangely enough she feels troubled by that now. Or troubled: she rather laughs about it a little. ‘Sex symbol, ha ha! They’re crazy! I don’t think about that, it’s all so relative. I’m not that beautiful and I’m certainly no sweetheart.’
‘It used to be worse: I remember that one of our dogs was eaten alive by a German shepherd. A horrible thing to happen, but I was the one making jokes at the table, saying ‘Are we eating dog chops today?’ and things like that. They must have thought I was a horrible child.’
World fame
The new single, ‘A View From A Bridge’, is released now and it comes with a beautiful video. Kim, father Marty, brother Ricky and especially her record company are steering towards world fame very carefully: ‘I have always wanted to be famous. Why I don’t know, but I just wanted it. That has always been my focus and it was my drive.’
It looks like Kim is about to achieve her goal. Soon her live concerts will start and there’s no doubt that the beautiful 20-year-old swan will get many concerts sold out. The ugly duckling would never have dreamed of that.
