Date: 1 January 1987
Originally published in: Top 10 (Netherlands)
Written by:
Six years ago she had a small hit over there. But Kim Wilde wanted to prove in America that she should be taken seriously. That’s why she did a promotion tour there. What the brave Kim did, you read it in Top 10.
In fact the Americans almost forgot about her a little, and Kim Wilde knew that. ‘I will have to start all over again’, she says before the start of the tour, ‘but I will succeed!’ After a few days of being in the States, it turned out to be hard. ‘They see me here like just another English singer who wants to make it’, she complains, ‘and that is incredibly hard. Yo uhave to be very good to get your feet on the ground as a non-American person.’ She ran from one radio station to another, and performed in the strangest TV programmes. She talked to countless journalists and they all wanted to know what Kim was looking for in America. ‘I did get desperate at times’, she says, ‘but suddenly my single ‘You keep me hangin’ on’ started taking off. It suddenly rose to the top of the charts! And then it’s a lot easier all of a sudden, because a hit says it all over here.’
Still it wasn’t just the record that made Kim break through in America. She has presented herself really well, and showed that she is a real professional.
It’s strange that it took so long for the Americans to find out.
‘Sometimes it seeed like they didn’t want me to present myself well’, she says in surprise, ‘I had to wait incredibly long for my turn in a TV-show.’ But when the Americans saw Kim doing her thing, it was easier. It happened suddenly. ‘One minute you’re nothing’, Kim says, ‘and then the breakthrough happened. After a few weeks of working really hard, I was there. A lovely feeling. I knew it wasn’t a waste of time.’
Kim almost got married during her tour as well. ‘There was this one nice guy’, she laughs. ‘His name was John and I met him during a performance. One moment he asked me whether I’d like to marry him. I was surprised. It was the first time that anyone proposed to me. Even Claude, my ex-boyfriend, never did that. And I seriously considered it too. But finally I said ‘no’. You know why? He didn’t like Prince, I can’t live with a man who doesn’t like Prince, ha ha ha.’
Back in England Kim was surprised one more time: her mother Joyce was pregnant. ‘Fantastic’, Kim smiles. ‘I love children. They are so adorable, so I love having another brother or sister. And no-one should say that the mother is too old. What is 46 years after all?’ And does her brother or sister have to like Prince as well? Kim laughs. ‘We’ll see when he or she is big enough’, she says, ‘but maybe by then Prince is in a retirement home.’
