Kate Bush’s remarkable resurgence continues, with her rejuvenated smash hit in line for a prestigious award – almost four decades after the song was released.
The British singer’s 1985 track Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) found millions of new fans in 2022 when it featured prominently in Netflix’s hit Stranger Things.
After exploding on TikTok, it went to No.1 in the British charts, and gave Bush her first top 10 hit in the US. That bettered, by far, its performance on its original release, when it peaked at No.3 in Britain.
“It’s such a great series, I thought that the track would get some attention,” Bush told BBC radio in the same week Running Up That Hill hit No.1.
“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.”
By December, Running Up That Hill was firmly atop Spotify’s 198-song, near-12-hour Official Stranger Things Playlist, with more than 800 million individual streams.
“It’s been a crazy, roller-coaster year for me. I still reel from the success of RUTH, being the No.1 track of this summer. What an honour!” Bush wrote in a Christmas message on her official website.
“It was such a great feeling to see so many of the younger generation enjoying the song. It seems that quite a lot of them thought I was a new artist! I love that!”
On Wednesday, it emerged Running Up That Hill had been nominated in the “most performed song” category at the Ivor Novello Awards, which celebrate outstanding writing and composition.
Bush joins Harry Styles, Arctic Monkeys, Wet Leg, Stormzy and Little Simz among the artists nominated for this year’s Ivor Novello Awards. Other artists in the running in 2023 include Ed Sheeran (two nominations) and Florence + The Machine, Glass Animals and Ed Sheeran.
The British awards recognise creative achievement in songwriting and composition, and also celebrate singer-songwriters and groups for their wider contribution to music.
The “most performed song” award recognises the tune played most often on TV and radio, and at concerts and DJ sets in the past year. Sheeran won with Bad Habits won last year – and is nominated for the same song again in 2023, the first time any song has been nominated in two consecutive years.
The BBC reports that Bush’s Running Up That Hill was previously nominated for best contemporary song at the 1986 Ivor Novello Awards. It lost to Tina Turner’s We Don’t Need Another Hero.
Bush has previously won two Ivor Novellos: Best lyric for The Man With The Child In His Eyes in 1979 and best song for Don’t Give Up, a duet with Peter Gabriel, in 1987.
The British singer is yet to make any public comment on her latest success.
See a full list of all the nominees in the Ivor Novello Awards here.
-with agencies
