Date: 11 March 2020
Originally published in: Majorca Daily Bulletin (Spain)
Written by:
Music icon Kim Wilde has been recording some new tracks in Majorca at the state-of-the-art Palma Music Studios and she loved the experience.
She and her brother Ricky were so impressed with Palmaâs set up they posted a message on Facebook.
And studio founder, musician and co-owner who has produced many of the worldâs greatest artists during his career, Fredrik Thomander, said yesterday that he was over the moon with the message.
âThis is not the first time Iâve worked with Kim, I produced a few of her songs over the past ten years but it is really special this time as sheâs about to celebrate her 60th birthday and is bringing out her greatest hits to mark this milestone in her life and career.”
âShe came down for the best part of a week, we wrote a new single for the album and recorded a number of tracks. Sheâs amazing. Her voice is still just like it was when she was 19, sheâs still got that great range and enthusiasm.”
âApart from the greatest hits album, she is also starting a major tour in Scandinavia in April and should be appearing across the United Kingdom after the summer – so sheâs pretty full on which is great,â Fredrik said.
Kim first saw success in 1981 with her debut single Kids in America, which reached number two in the UK. In 1983, she received the Brit Award for Best British Female solo artist. In 1986, she had a UK number two hit with a reworked version of the Supremesâ song You Keep Me Hanginâ On, which also topped the US Billboard Hot 100 in 1987.
Between 1981 and 1996, she had 25 singles reach the Top 50 of the UK singles chart.
Her other hits include Chequered Love (1981), You Came (1988) and Never Trust a Stranger (1988). In 2003, she collaborated with Nena on the song Anyplace, Anywhere, Anytime, which topped the Dutch charts.
Worldwide, Kim, who has a European tour with Michael Jackson under her belt, has sold over 10 million albums and 20 million singles.
She holds the record for being the most-charted British female solo act of the 1980s, with seventeen UK Top 40 hit singles.
Starting in 1998, while still active in music, she has branched into an alternative career as a landscape gardener, which has included presenting gardening shows on the BBC and Channel 4.
In 2005, she won a Gold award for her courtyard garden at the Royal Horticultural Societyâs Chelsea Flower Show and it was shortly after that she first came to Majorca. As the presenter of a gardening makeover programme, she came to the island with her TV crew to tackle the garden of a British couple in Cala Mayor.
She continues to be a keen gardener and is involved with a number of charities, but this year, she is preparing her new album and getting ready to go back on tour.
Fredrik, whose studio has gone from strength to strength since it opened in January, 2018, is looking forward to Kim returning as they continue working together while hosting a series of songwritersâ workshops and producing and collaborating with budding and leading artists who are coming to Palma from all over the world to work at the studio.