Date: 1 January 1986
Originally published in: Top 10 (Netherlands)
Written by:
It has looked like it was over with Kim Wilde’s career for some time. Since 1984 her records became less interesting and her performances weren’t very special anymore. That situation has completely changed now!
She stood on the stage being beautiful and as nice as it is for some time – even the most fanatic fan has had enough after some time. The result was that Kim started to be forgotten and even had to cancel a European tour because there was little interest in her anymore. The success that had started three years earlier more or less by accident, nothing was left…
In fact it wasn’t the intention that Kim Wilde would become a popstar. Her father, who was named Reginald Smith but who was very popular especially in England as Marty Wilde, thought that his son Ricky had everything to make it in music. He composed a set of songs for the coming star and even arranged a contract for him at the record company of Mickie Most.
A few singles were actually released, but except for a few family members no-one rushed to the record store to buy them.
Wilde senior kept on despite this and even took on Rick’s sister Kim to sing backing vocals, although he wasn’t too sure about his daughter’s musical abilities. And on that day Mickie Most stepped into the studio. He heard Kim singing and looked through the glass of the recording studio with interest. The nice voice he heard through the speakers fitted exactly with the picture of the fantastic girl he saw there and mr. Most knew for sure that he had discovered a new idol. The single ‘Kids in America’ was recorded very fast and a few weeks later the name Kim Wilde was a well-known term. The successors of her first hit sold well and the future looked rosy for Kim Wilde. It’s just that that future didn’t last as long as everyone had thought.
But exactly when no-one expected her to return Kim fought back in 1986 with two megahits and an album that she could be proud of.
Mysterious Frenchman
The audience was at her feet again and everything started anew. Kim was very happy, because she also met the man of her dreams, of whom no-one knows more than that he’s a tall, handsome Frenchman. Kim is silent about him. “You will hear about him when we get married”, is the only thing she wants to say, “but that can take a while, because for now my career is more important.”
A career which Kim handles differently than before. She wants to be prepared for a future in which she wants to be very big. She has gone through a metamorphosis and as you can see on these pictures, it won’t be because of that if things go wrong. But there’s no reason to think that that will happen. Quite the contrary!
