She has the blondness of the stars and the aplomb of Marilyn; She has a pout to make Bardot pale and has just celebrated her twenty-six years: it is Kim Wilde, a small Briton who has become famous all over the world for her rock songs and her “dance music”.
Kim Wilde was born in 1960 in a London suburb. Her environment naturally destined her to the song. At the time, daddy Marty Wilde is a pioneer of rock and roll in England. While Vince Taylor and Cliff Richard compete for supremacy, Marty Wilde, born in a very modest environment and whose principles stick very well to rock and roll, knows a brief success as a singer. “Marty is one of those guys who really loved Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis and Buddy Holly, and Eddie Cochran or Gene Vincent, all those monsters of the American homeland of rock,” she says.
But Marty is pipped to the post by little guys in strict costume … the Beatles! “It allowed him to understand the march of time in music, which my brother and I benefit by the force of things,” Kim comments.
At the age of eight, Kim studied classical piano, an indispensable basis. After a short visit to the Hertfordshire college of art in Saint-Albans, near London, she decided to go on a musical career.
“When I was twelve-thirteen, the people who impressed me were mostly powerful singer-songwriters, Stevie Wonder of” Innervisions “, Carole King of” Tapestry “, Joni Mitchell of “Ladies of the Canyon”. I knew all these albums by heart… And of course, I had only one idea: to do like them, like these women, especially, original, free, courageous, and who put me in full view. At the same time, I had my alien insanity, Gary Glitter, the Bay City Rollers, all these singles that burst and make you dream … So, little by little, I am oriented towards this tendency to begin with, and my father and my brother began to write for me, in this perspective, “Kids of America”.
With this title, which the public discovers in 1980, Kim Wilde knows a thundering secrecy. And if Kim already seems to have everything without much effort, she owes it to the professionalism of the people around her. Her father serves as manager, and her brother as musical director. They seek to ensure the best possible environment and present it to all that the British rock scene counts of important. This is how she meets Mickie Most, a veteran producer who has, among other things, discovered Jeff Beck and Donovan. Sensing Kim’s talent and seduced by his round cheeks, the producer guides his first steps. Within Rak, the company headed by Most, the young singer records this famous “Kids of America”.
Kim found in her father and brother a tandem of composers who tailor the hits that the public appreciates so much. After the first single, she records “Chequered Love”, “Cambodia”, and in 1983 “Love Blonde”. This date marks a change in the style of Kim’s songs. Rock is still there, of course, but the lyrics are more mature. “It seemed to me that I had been around a period: the text was too obvious, I took myself seriously in a light manner, I had to say farewell to an image of me that became restrictive, but I do not know yet why all these singles were so ambiguous … Basically, I think it is because of that they worked so well and I still love them. “
We are in 1983 and, parallel to the success of “Love Blonde”, the third album, “Catch as catch can” is released. This album has a title produced by Nile Rodgers, co-leader of the funk black group “Chic” and co-producer of David Bowie, Madonna and many others …
Her success, Kim owes it on the one hand to her interpretations of quality, but of course also to her very nice physique. In England, it is not a magazine that regularly brings her to the front page, praising her “good looks” of a modern girl, reassuring and healthy …
Laurent Voulzy will not say the opposite! The character of the young Englishman inspired her with a song-homage: “My nights without KIm Wilde”, early 1985. “I chose him for his physique, his personality,” he explains. “She’s a real girl. I was told she was surprised and moved to hear my song that she finds beautiful.” True. Moreover, Kim agreed to appear in the video-clip of the piece. But still impossible to see this clip, at least in France, because of the presence a little too visible on the screen of a sponsor, which has caused the television to deny its broadcast.
“Dancing in the Dark”, “The second time” … until 1985. That year, France is totally seduced by Kim. The critics are subjugated: “She is capable of taking funk and rhythm and blues accents”, “Beautiful child with Lolita’s physique, with a fragile and voluntary voice”, they write in March, after her passage at the Zenith, which she sold out. Nine months later, in December, she returns to participate in the great concert of SOS Racisme in Courneuve. Everyone is conquered.
But her biggest surprise, she reserved it for 1986. In November, released her fifth album “Another Step”, in which Kim wrote for the first time her own songs. Already, “Teases and Dares”, in November 84, with two texts co-written by the singer, foreshadowed the future. But with this last album, Kim has gone to the top speed. She wrote eight of the twelve songs and co-produced one with her brother Ricki. Other authors include her guitarist Steve Byrd, and Ricki and “M”, the nickname Kim gives to Marty. Simultaneously, a simple “You keep me hangin ‘on”, a reprise of the hit of the Supremes. It must be believed that she has talent, the same Kim, to make a maxi-hit, twenty years later!
All in all, this album is a good sign of the future. And, last news: the next one should be released in October. The time will be long here … “Summer without Kim Wilde” …
She said
“I am not a religious at all, and not a mystic for a penny either. I am even one of those people who consider that organized churches, whatever they may be, serve as auxiliaries to the political powers to control the privacy of the people. About the Pope, I would say to him: if I have a friend of whom I learn that she uses the pill, sometimes aborts, divorces often and crunches sex at all meals, I will not love her more, but no less either. Orgasms come and go, that immorality does the same!”
“Writing (…) is a need that you feel, but it is difficult to define. In fact, there comes a time when you want to sing what you feel, what affects you, Expressing your feelings through music. It is also a way to thank my audience and communicate directly with them. “
