Kate Bush Reflects on ‘Running Up That Hill’ Success, Shares Message of ‘Hope’ in 2022 Christmas Message

Kate Bush is looking back on the ups and downs of 2022.

In a bittersweet message titled “Merry Christmas” on her website, the 64-year-old U.K. pop icon reflects on the pains of the the past year, including the war in Ukraine and death of Queen Elizabeth II, but also shares thanks for the renewed success of her classic 1985 song “Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)” and expresses hope for a brighter 2023.

“I don’t think any of us have ever known a year like this one,” Bush begins her note. “Life became incredibly frightening in the pandemic, but just as we think it might be over soon, it seems to keep going. It’s a bombardment — the horrific war in Ukraine, the famines, the droughts, the floods… and we lost our Queen.”

The singer-songwriter then turns to a more uplifting topic: the resurgence of “Running Up That Hill” on the Billboard charts, thanks to a high-profile synch in the fourth season of the 1980s-set sci-fi Netflix series Stranger Things.

“It’s been a crazy, roller coaster year for me,” Bush continues. “I still reel from the success of [Running Up That Hill], being the No 1 track of this summer. What an honour!”

After being featured in the show, “Running Up That Hill” — the lead single from Bush’s 1985 album, Hounds of Love — rose to No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 and returned to the top 10 of the Alternative Airplay chart after a record 28-year absence. The song also felt success on a global level, topping charts in the U.K. and Australia.

“It was such a great feeling to see so many of the younger generation enjoying the song,” she writes. “It seems that quite a lot of them thought I was a new artist! I love that! Again, thank you so much to everyone who supported the track and made it a hit.”

Bush closes her message, which includes an image of a small robin, on a positive note by sharing some hopeful words from poet Emily Dickinson.

“I used a little robin in some of my Christmas gifts to friends this year. I felt that this humble little bird, which symbolises Christmas could also symbolise hope in the context of Emily Dickinson’s beautiful words: Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul,” Bush writes. “I‘d like to think that this Christmas when joy is so hard to find, hope will perch in all our souls. Merry Christmas!”