Kim Wilde: professionality above all

Yes, Kim Wilde looks just as beautiful – if not more beautiful – in the wild as she does on her promotional photographs. Yes, Kim Wilde is just as sweet – if not sweeter – as she is in her videos. No, the English singer doesn’t need her beautiful blonde head and nicely built body to make it. And no, she doesn’t use tricks on stage to make her singing sound better live. She really does it herself.
Lots of professionality on Wednesday night in theatre Noorderligt where pop idol Kim Wilde closed her successful world tour ‘The Hits Concert’. Almost 600 fans came to Tilburg to accompany their favourite singer during the very last concert of her world encompassing musical tour. Japan, Australia, Scandinavia, Europe; the sympathetic performer, flooded with teddy bears, summed it all up on Wednesday to end with: ‘Tilburk, the best of all places’. Right!
That they had played lots of concerts together, could be noticed with Kim and her band, because they really worked well together. Guitarist Steve Byrd & company fired one hit after another into the hall and effortlessly they reacted to all kinds of, sometimes too, enthusiastic reactions from the audience. Not lastly because of the Netherlands beating Morocco during the World Cup Football. Kim congatulated ‘Tilburk’ with this.
Her new wave pop melodies, built from a solid rock base, are mostly coming from her last compilation cd ‘The singles collection 1981-1983’, although the beautiful singer also sang tracks from her first and last studio cd. And so ‘Chequered love’, ‘Cambodia’, ‘View from a bridge’, ‘Love blonde’, an ode to the diva Marilyn Monroe, and ‘Kids in America’ were mixed with ‘Never trust a stranger’, ‘Love is holy’ and ‘If I can’t have you’ by the brothers Gibb.
The audience was diverse in Noorderligt. There were young girls, dreaming of becoming someday like Kim Wilde. But also older men who wanted to cross their view with the sympathetic woman at least once. Kim succeeded effortlessly in making contact, but whether the young girls will ever be famous and whether the gentlemen got what they came for, remains – fortunately – the question…