Date: 5 September 1988
Originally published in: Top 50 (France)
Written by:
Splendid return for the beautiful Kim Wilde. A little over a year since her worldwide megahit ‘You keep me hangin’ on’, a cover of the Sixties classic, Kim comes back to the Top 50. ‘You came’ is the first extract from her latest album, the sixth, entitled ‘Close’, and it’s a success, thanks to a tour in support of the gigantic concerts by Michael Jackson. Although the audience doesn’t necessarily come for her, singing in front of close to one hondred and forty thousand people in two nights in Paris doesn’t happen without effect. When Kim Wilde arrived with us in 1981 with ‘Kids in America’, she interprets the songs written by her father Marty with the aid of her brother Ricky. And even before the Top 50 recognises the magnitude of her popularity, Kim collects the hits: ‘Cambodia’, ‘View from a bridge’, ‘Love blonde’, etc. Kim is a superstar in Eure. But she has to wait until 1986 when her cover of the famous hit by the Supremes, the group with Diana Ross, when the United States finally embrace her. No doubt it worked in favour of our lovely singer to be chosen by Michael Jackson as his opening act during the European part of his tour. A great experience for Kim who has taken the opportunity to admire the American singer from the side of the stage.
The latest album by Kim Wilde is more than ever a personal creation. She has perfected her knowledge of music, on keyboards as well as producing and composing. More than on previous discs, she has worked on the songs herself. In Great Britain the audience is discovering ‘You came’ right now, after having had ‘Hey mr. Heartache’ as a first single from the album. Now in France, ‘You came’ is going to try and score even higher than ‘You keep me hangin’ on’, which did not come higher than 19th place in January 1987. The song by Kim announced ‘You came’ but it’s really her own return she describes.
6 questions to…
There’s a year between your last hit ‘You keep me hangin’ on’ and your new hit ‘You came’. What have you done in the mean time?
I have taken some time out to live, to work in my home, to see my friends but I have mostly been making new songs. I know more about studios now, programming sequencers, the Fairlight, and recording on a twelve track recorder.
Will you produce your own discs in the future?
At the moment, I am still an amateur at producing, and it’s mostly Ricky’s job. Although it isn’t always easy working with your brother, Ricky knows me well and he is very demanding with me, but he always has marvellous ideas. And I love him.
This time, you have written songs.
Yes, I have written this album with Ricky. It’s the second one after ‘Another step’ which we also realised together, without our father. But it’s different than the previous album, more soul-oriented, influenced by the music we have listened to lately, like Anita Baker, dance and pop sometimes. And I think my voice has improved.
How was the tour with Michael Jackson?
Marvellous. Watching Michael from the side of the stage was something fantastic. When you watch it from the audience it seems simple, but you see everything from the side of the stage, all the work that comes into it, it’s incredible. I have tried to understand how he manages to disappear from one side of the stage and reappear from the other side. I was so close to it but I still don’t understand.
Certain journalists say that you were snubbed by him.
I don’t support that view at all. I have met him and he was adorable and I love the fact that we had the time, before the end of the tour, to have a talk together. He’s very sane, very normal, very gentle and absolutely charming. He has a marvellous smile and the smale is something that says a lot about a person.
Like him, it’s your father who has launched your career.
My mother too, she was a singer and it’s her who taught me harmonies. But in actual fact, my father has started taken me on tours since I was sixteen, when he saw I really wanted to get into music and it was my first passion.
She loves
- Paris for its monuments and fashion designers
- The painter Marc Chagall and the ceiling he made in the Opéra in Paris.
- A red wine (‘Blue nun’)
- Islands
- Yoghurt
She hates
- Interviews
- Spiders, they make her hysterical
- Nouvelle cuisin, because it lacks taste
- Boring people
- Getting up early because she likes to sleep late.
