Kate Bush has taken to her website to share her annual Christmas message. Likely her final communication with fans for 2022, the beloved music icon used the forum to sum up a year fraught with global ills but also featuring a surprise resurgence in popularity for the artist.
“I don’t think any of us have ever known a year like this one,” Bush wrote. “Life became incredibly frightening in the pandemic, but just as we think it might be over soon, it seems to keep going.”
Kate Bush – ‘Running Up That Hill’
“It’s a bombardment – the horrific war in Ukraine, the famines, the droughts, the floods… and we lost our Queen,” she added. “Many of my friends were surprised at how upset they were at her death especially as we aren’t royalists, but I think her passing became a focus for grief, for unexpressed loss that so many people had felt during the pandemic.”
Bush inevitably spent time on the unexpected resurgence in popularity for her 1985 single, ‘Running Up That Hill’. Having featured prominently in the fourth season of hut sic-fi show Stranger Things, the track topped charts around the world, making Bush a household name once again in the process.
“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” she added. ” What an honour! It was really exciting to see it doing so well globally, but especially here in the UK and Australia; and also to see it making it all the way to No 3 in the US.”
“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,” she continued. “Again, thank you so much to everyone who supported the track and made it a hit.”
Closing her message with a reference to Emily Dickinson’s work, Kate Bush ruminated on the coming year, questioning where the world would find itself by next Christmas.
“I wonder where on earth we’ll all be at the end of next year? I hope the war will end,” she concluded. “I hope that the nurses will be in a position where they are appreciated – they should be cherished.
“Let’s all hope that next year will be better than this one,” she added. “I keep thinking about hope and how it was the last to fly out of Pandora’s box. Sometimes it’s all that seems to glow in the dark times we find ourselves in right now.”
Further Reading
Kate Bush Is Reissuing ‘Running Up That Hill’ As A CD Single For The First Time
The Wombats Cover Kate Bush’s ‘Running Up That Hill’ For Like A Version
Kate Bush Gives Rare Interview Following ‘Running Up That Hill’ Resurgence
