Kate Bush excited to be discovered by new audience after 37 years thanks to Netflix 'Stranger Things'

The 63-year-old singer said, 'The thought of all these really young people hearing the song for the first time, I think it’s very special."

Kate Bush has admitted she is shocked and excited to be discovered by young people thanks to the recent chart success of Running Up That Hill.

The 63-year-old singer's1985 hit has climbed back to the top of the charts after being featured in popular Netflix sci-fi show Stranger Things and Bush has given a rare interview to BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour as a result.

Bush told host Emma Barnett: “It’s just extraordinary. I mean it’s such a great series, I thought that the track would get some attention.

“But I just never imagined that it would be anything like this. It’s so exciting. But it’s quite shocking really, isn’t it? I mean, the whole world’s gone mad.”

Kate Bush, pictured in 1979, is fiercely private.


She added: “What’s really wonderful, I think, is this is a whole new audience who, in a lot of cases, they’ve never heard of me and I love that.

“The thought of all these really young people hearing the song for the first time and discovering it is, well, I think it’s very special.”

Running Up That Hill has just reached number one in the UK Singles Chart thanks to a rule change that allowed the number of streams of the song to count to more equivalent 'sales' of newer tracks.

By hitting the top spot the track broke three records, including the longest time taken for a song to reach number one, 37 years after it was originally released.

Stranger Things' Max Mayfield listens to Running Up That Hill on her Walkman.


Bush also secured the record for the longest gap between number one singles, 44 years after her debut single, Wuthering Heights, hit the top spot in 1978.

And at 63-years-old the British singer-songwriter is now the oldest female artist to achieve a UK number one single.

In the fourth series of 80s-set Stranger Things, currently airing on Netflix, Max Mayfield, played by Sadie Sink, listens to the song on her Walkman in an attempt to ground herself to the real world.

Bush said: “I thought what a lovely way for the song to be used in such a positive way, as a kind of Talisman almost really for Max. I think it’s very touching, actually.”

Kate Bush performing on her debut tour in 1979.


She added she wants new fans to “take from it what they want," from the song.

Running Up That Hill has been number on in Australia, New Zealand, Sweden and Switzerland since the show aired and achieved a peak of number four in the US charts.

Famously private Bush - also known for hits Babooshka and Don't Give Up - released her last album 50 Words For Snow in 2011.

In 2014 she performed a 22 date residency at London's Hammersmith Apollo theatre. It was her first series of live shows since her debut tour in 1979. Tickets sold out within 15 minutes.

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