Kim Wilde: Curious way into the hit parade

This is how pop lolitas become serious singers: When Kim Wilde, at the sweet 20, hopped across the stage sexy, naive and with a pouty mouth, she ran under the rubric “Ephemera”. Even when she hit the charts with “Kids in America”, she was not taken seriously. Only with her new album “Love Is” did the critics of yore become fans. Today (8 p.m.) she is a guest in the Charterhalle.

Kim Wilde knows that she has to remind herself after so many years. She calls her tour “The Hit Concerts” – and of course she remembers her great successes from the old days: “Checkered Love”, “Water On Glass”, “Cambodia” and “You Keep Me Hangin’ On” (covered from the Supremes).

With more than six million albums sold worldwide, the blonde beauty is the most successful British soloist of all time. The fact that she is a curiosity by the way was not so well known until now. The “Wilde Company” is a family clan, a now highly respected team of autodidacts: mother Joyce became manager, daddy Marty wrote the lyrics, brother Ricky produces and composes in his own studio. “My father,” says Kim, “always encouraged me. I would listen to the Beach Boys, Simon & Garfunkel, Joni Mitchell or Kraftwerk at home. I just had great taste!”