Kim Wilde

Kim Wilde (born Kim Smith, 18 November 1960) is an English pop singer, author and television presenter who burst onto the music scene in 1981 with the number 2 UK Singles Chart new wave classic "Kids in America". In 1983, Wilde received the Brit Award for Best British Female. In 1987 she had a major hit in the US when her version of The Supremes' classic "You Keep Me Hangin' On" topped the charts. Starting in 1998, while still active in music, she has branched into an alternative career as a landscape gardener. The eldest child of 1950s rock 'n' roller Marty Wilde (birth name Reginald Smith) and Joyce Baker, who was earlier a member of the singing and dancing group The Vernons Girls, Kim Smith was born in the West London suburb of Chiswick and attended Oakfield Preparatory School, in the Southeast London area of Dulwich. When she was nine, the family moved to Hertfordshire, where she was educated at Tewin and later Presdales School in Ware. In 1980, at age 20, she completed a foundation course at St Albans College of Art & Design and, as Kim Wilde, was signed to RAK Records by Mickie Most. Wilde released her debut single "Kids in America" in January 1981. An instant success, it