Kim Wilde was forced to find “ways around” the Brexit restrictions on musicians.
Kim Wilde was forced to find ‘ways around’ the Brexit restrictions on musicians
The 63-year-old 1980s singing sensation is touring the UK in March 2025 with support from Cutting Crew, and has said she and her group struggled like millions of other musicians to travel throughout Europe since Britain voted to leave the European Union.
She told Bang Showbiz when asked if she and her backing group had been hit by the fallout from the 2020 referendum vote to quit the bloc: “We have found ways around it. There have been some issues that needed sorting out, some complications from time to time.
“But, luckily, nothing we haven’t been able to overcome.”
Kim’s remarks come after a survey found almost half of UK musicians and workers in the music industry have had less work in the EU since Brexit than before it.
The study also showed more than a quarter have had no EU work at all.
Experts from the Independent Society of Musicians, which carried out the survey, said the Brexit restrictions had stopped the chances of making a living as a musician.
Kim became a chart sensation with her debut single ‘Kids in America’, which came out when she was 20, and she has admitted her instant fame meant she had to turn down the opportunity of being a sales assistant at a local record store.
She told the Daily Mirror: “Mum sent me to the Job Centre and they said, 'What do you want to do?’
“I said, ‘I want to work in a record shop’.
“A few months later, a record shop in Hertford needed an assistant and the Job Centre sent me details.
“I felt pretty confident I could get the job because I had an immense music knowledge. We almost had a record shop in the house.
“But ‘Kids in America’ charted and scuppered my plans.
“I was all set to have my dream job and it got snatched away from me by a hit record.”
Tickets for Kim’s 2025 tour are now on sale at kimwilde.com.
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