Kate Bush’s ‘Running Up That Hill’ Blasts to 1 Billion Streams on Spotify

Kate Bush is running up another record.

The English alternative-pop legend clears the one billion streams milestone on Spotify with “Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God),” her mid-1980s classic which enjoyed a second life following its sync to season four of Stranger Things.

By doing so, “Running Up That Hill” becomes the first solo recording by a female artist from that decade to pass one billion streams on the platform.

“A billion streams,” she writes on her official Website. “I have an image of a river that suddenly floods and becomes many, many tributaries — a billion streams — on their way to the sea. Each one of these streams is one of you… Thank you! Thank you so much for sending this song on such an impossibly astonishing journey. I’m blown away.”

Bush is one of just a handful of artists from that era to hit join Spotify’s “Billions” club, whose members include Tears For Fears (“Everybody Wants to Rule The World”), Toto (“Africa”), A-ha (“Take on Me”) and The Police (“Every Breath You Take”).

Powered by Netflix’s hit sci-fi series, Bush’s 1985 hit roared to No. 1 in the U.K., Australia, and the Billboard Global 200 chart for the first time, and lifted to No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100, for her first career Top 10 appearance in the U.S. With its U.K. chart supremacy, Bush broke three long-standing records.

In a rare interview last year for BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour, Bush remarked: “I mean, it’s such a great series. I thought that the track would get some attention, but I never imagined that it would be anything like this. It’s so exciting. It’s quite shocking really, isn’t it? The whole world’s gone mad.”

Since “Running” blew up a second time on sales charts around the globe, and reignited interest in the influential singer, Bush was announced to the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame class of 2023.

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