Record-breaking 80s pop star making epic comeback decades after quitting music for landscape gardening

POP star Kim Wilde was lured back into performing — by singing Abba songs at a village fete.

The Kids in America hitmaker, 64, put her stellar career on the backburner in the late 1990s to pursue gardening.

But she will return with a new album early next year — and credits a fete in her Hertfordshire village for the rethink.

She told the White Wine Question Time podcast: “They asked me to sing Abba but when I got there they asked if I’d do Kids in America.

“I was quite anti the whole idea of it but when I sang it the whole place went crazy.

“So the village takes credit for getting me back on stage, which I rather love.”

Kim, daughter of 1950s rocker Marty Wilde, holds the record as the most-charted British female solo act of the 1980s, with 17 UK top 40 hit singles.

She first hit the charts in 1981 with Kids In America which peaked at No2.

She followed that up with No4 Chequered Love later that year.

In 1987 she turned to comedy releasing a Christmas charity single for Comic Relief with Mel Smith.

The cheeky duo reached number three with Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree.

She continued to have hits in the 90s as well as touring and appearing in the West End show Tommy.

In November 2024 she released her comeback single Midnight Train.

As well as music, Kim enjoyed gardening success, winning a Gold award for her courtyard garden at the Royal Horticultural Society’s Chelsea Flower Show in 2005.

She is also an author and has published two books on gardening – Gardening with Children (2005) and The First Time Gardener (2006).

But now she has got the enthusiasm for music once again, and is planning to make the most of it.