Pop icon of the ’80s Kim Wilde was “a bit sick of” the catalogue of music that made her a star, she’s revealed in a recent interview.
The singer tried to branch away from the style that made her famous by recording a more R&B sounding album in 1995’s Now & Forever but it was a commercial flop.
“It was in a more R&B sort of soul groove direction – and people really weren’t ready to hear Kim Wilde sing in that way. The album really didn’t do so well at all. It was one of the albums that led me to think that maybe it was time to get out of the music industry – which I did just a few years later. I just thought, Well, I don’t think that the public really want me to move on – and so I decided to get out. I’d met my husband [actor Hal Fowler] by then and I thought, You know, I’ll go off and try a new adventure.”
Wilde pursued other interests including horticulture, something she still loves. But she couldn’t stay away from music forever when she teamed up with German New Waver Nena (99 Luftballons) on the track Anyplace, Anywhere, Anytime.
“I really realised how much I loved those old songs, actually. We just got all a bit over-familiar with each other. We needed a bit of a cooling-off period.”