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Kate now 8 weeks at No.1 in Australia! Full chart update

Global Chart update

Well, of course we’ve been calling this the “Summer of Kate” here at www.katebushnews.com (for obvious reasons) but Down Under it’s nothing short of a glorious Winter of Kate as she today racks up an EIGHTH non-consecutive week at No.1 on the Australian ARIA singles chart! Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) has also been a huge success in neighbouring New Zealand where she hasn’t left the Top 4 for the last 9 weeks and even enjoyed a fortnight at No.1 in June! Let’s take a quick look at how the single is doing everywhere now, over two months since Stranger Things sent Kate’s masterpiece song into the stratosphere…

[Note: Don’t miss news of a HomeGround/KateBushNews.com fan event in London in September – all details below!]

OFFICIAL CHARTS: USA: The chart situation in the world’s largest music market remains fascinating – this week Kate retains her highest ever singles chart position in America for the second week running on the Billboard Hot 100 at No.3! Kate’s song has now become not just a streaming/download phenomenon but also one of US radio’s biggest hits of the summer of 2022. As Billboard explains: “The ‘Stranger Things’ viral bump is finally starting to recede for Kate Bush’s resurrected hit, but radio is picking up the slack. Radio programmers continue to successfully test “Hill” in callout research, in which they play snippets of the song to listeners along with other potential playlist staples. Also, it’s unusually strong on several top radio formats, rising from No.5 to No.3 this week on the Alternative Airplay chart and from No.10 to No.8 on the Pop Airplay chart.” As one industry spokesperson told Billboard: “…the audience isn’t tired of this thing.” Kate is currently at No.4 on the Billboard Global 200 having topped that weekly chart of charts on three previous occasions. Billboard have all kinds of charts including Hot Songwriter and Producer charts, you can download the latest set of these here. Kate has enjoyed 4 weeks at No.1 on the Hot 100 Songwriters chart, and an astounding 9 weeks at No.1 on the Rock Songwriters chart and 8 weeks at No.1 on the Alternative Songwriters chart. Kate is also No.2 on several Billboard Producer charts also, having spent up to 5 weeks at No.1 on those.

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OFFICIAL CHARTS: Ireland: Kate has today moved down to No.2 after an astounding SEVEN weeks at No.1 in her maternal homeland! Simply staggering Irish chart success. UK: Kate stays in the UK Top 10 for a TENTH week, remaining at No.9 in today’s new countdown – we remind ourselves that Wuthering Heights had a shorter stint, 7 weeks, in the Top 10 in Kate’s home country. Kate has enjoyed three weeks at No.1 in June with her second ever UK singles chart topper and anyone paying attention to her official site knows how she feels about that! Also, very significantly, Kate received an early birthday present on July 29th from the UK record industry when the BPI certified Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) DOUBLE Platinum, with sales of the single in excess of 1.2 million copies! Wow.

BPI Double Platinum Certified

Canada: Kate is at No.5 this week in the Canadian chart, down from No.3. She previously peaked at a Canadian chart career high of No.2 a few weeks ago. Germany: Kate remains at No.11 on the German singles chart this week. Kate reached a peak on the German chart at No.4 for three weeks in June. France: Kate is at No.15 in France, having peaked at No.3 for two weeks in June. Italy: Kate has spent 8 weeks inside the official Italian Top 40 peaking at No.18 in June. The Netherlands: Kate is at No.20 in the Dutch charts this week, having peaked at No.3 in June. Kate spent 6 weeks in the Dutch Top 10. Sweden: Kate has had a very impressive run in the official Swedish singles charts where she is currently at No.6. Kate peaked at No.1 in the chart in June and has remained in the Top 7 ever since! Norway: Kate is at No.20 on the official Norwegian chart this week and hasn’t left the Top 20 since she entered the chart at No.4 in June. Finland: Kate has now stayed 8 weeks in the official Finnish Singles Top 20, peaking at number 6 in early June. Denmark: Kate is at No.13 on the Danish singles chart and has spent 4 weeks in the Top 10 there, peaking at No.6. Austria: Kate is currently at No.8 in the Austrian chart and hasn’t left the Top 10 since June, peaking at No.3.

iTunes: Kate is today at an incredible No.2 on the Worldwide iTunes chart, having topped this chart three times previously. She is No.2 in Australia, No.2 in Canada, No. 5 in the USA, No.7 in Chile, No.7 in New Zealand, No.9 in France, No.12 in Norway and No.12 in the UK.

Spotify: Kate is at No.4 worldwide on Spotify right now having topped the weekly global chart three times. She is No.1 in Australia and the UK (Kate has been No.1 in the UK on Spotify for the last 8 weeks!), No.2 in Ireland, No.3 in Canada and also the USA, and No.4 in Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and No.5 in Switzerland. Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) has been streamed almost 400 million times since the song featured on Stranger Things at the end of May, bringing the total on the platform to an incredible 540 million+ streams in total. And finally…

BIG NEWS – Fan event!!! From our own Dave Cross: “Hey kids, I’m thrilled to announce this special event at The Royal Vauxhall Tavern in London, England. HomeGround and KateBushNews.com present; A Deal with God – a celebration of Kate Bush, to raise money for Cabaret vs Cancer on Wednesday 7th September, doors at 7pm.

A gorgeous line up of amazing performers including Jonathan Paul Hellyer, Ginny Lemon, Sadie Sinner, The Songbird Sooz Kempner, Rose Garden with Phil Lawrence, A Fat Child and hosted by Michael Twaits with Pippa Dee Jorge, Veronica Maldonado and Simon Le Vans. Tickets are on sale now.

GET YOUR TICKETS HERE!

Kate: No.1 Globally, climbs back to #4 peak in US, congratulates LF System!

Kate is this week back at No.1 on the formidable Billboard Global 200 singles chart, the one that covers the combined chart performances from around the whole world! She has knocked Harry Styles off the global top spot, the second time Kate has achieved this staggering feat with her song, and once again basically has “the biggest song in the world” as Billboard describe it themselves. In the USA today, thanks to ever-increasing American radio airplay and formidable download sales and streaming figures, Kate has climbed back up the US Charts to No.4, returning to her highest ever placing in the Billboard Hot 100! Can she climb even higher? This is her SIXTH week in the US Top Ten. Anecdotally, we are hearing from fans in the US that Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) is being played everywhere.

Kate has also climbed back up several other national charts; to No.6 in The Netherlands, No.5 in Germany and No.2 in Switzerland. Tomorrow we will see if she has risen further in the Canadian charts and that incredible Billboard Global 200, where she is currently back up to No.3. See Friday’s news post for more current global chart news, including Kate at No.1 in Ireland and Australia for the 4th time in each country.

Spotify updates: The song is at No.1 globally on Spotify this week, and yet again on today’s Daily Global chart, her 13th time topping it! Also very significantly, Hounds of Love has climbed to No.7 on the Global Albums Weekly chart on the world’s largest streaming music platform! Spotify have launched a newly curated “This is Kate Bush” playlist (see it below) that features 50 tracks from throughout Kate’s career and could well help listeners explore other corners of Kate’s catalogue. Her monster hit just continues to astonish.

NB: Have you downloaded your FREE copy of HomeGround Magazine‘s EPIC 134-page 40th Anniversary issue yet? All details and download link at this post here!

On her official website, Kate has graciously congratulated LF System who take over the No.1 position in the UK charts after Kate had a three week run at the top. The ACR rule now applies again to Kate’s track, so Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) has to achieve twice as many streams as other songs to achieve the equivalent in converted sales, hence the drop to No.3 on the chart. Kate writes:

Many, many congratulations on the UK No. 1 single for LF SYSTEM.
So many of you have loved the last two episodes of Stranger Things, released last Friday. We’ve received an overwhelming number of messages. I just want to say again, how very proud I am that RUTH has been included in the shows in some small way.

Thank you everyone for supporting RUTH with such positivity. It’s lovely to see the song continuing to do so well around the world – it’s just boomeranged back to No 1 in Australia!  
 Hope you can get a chance to enjoy the arrival of summer.
   Best wishes,
      Kate

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Finally, something we haven’t linked here before was this solid hour-plus Youtube discussion about Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) from the Produce Like a Pro Youtube channel. It includes chats with those involved in the song and Hounds of Love album, such as drummer Stuart Elliott, engineer Brian Tench and engineer Nick Launay (talking about his work on The Dreaming).

Kate STILL ruling worldwide charts!

Global charts

Last week Part Two of Stranger Things 4 landed on Netflix and continued to break viewing records for the streaming service. As expected, Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) featured again in an epic scene in which all the characters in the show were pitted against almost insurmountable odds. An intense version of the song (called the TOTEM remix, from soundtrack composer duo Patrick Buchanan and David James Rosen) was used and is rapidly spreading across Youtube and beyond.

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As a result, Kate’s song has climbed BACK to the summit of many charts (not that she had slipped far at all!) and, briefly here’s the current chart picture:

Official charts: Kate is No.3 in the UK charts today, after having been No.1 for a staggering 3 weeks. Kate is No.1 again today in Ireland for the fourth week in a row! Kate is No.1 again in Australia for her 4th non-consecutive week at No.1 in that country. Kate is No. 2 in New Zealand. As radio airplay in America builds each week, Kate has climbed back up to No.6 in the US Billboard Hot 100. Kate has climbed back up to No.4 in the Canadian charts. Kate has climbed back up to No.3 on the Billboard Global 200 (which covers the whole world!). Elsewhere on Billboard Kate is enjoying her 5th consecutive week at the top of the Hot Alternative Songs chart.

iTunes: Kate is currently No.1 in the world on iTunes. Around the world, Kate is No.1 in Australia, Canada, Czech Republic, Hungary, Luxembourg, New Zealand and the United States, No.2. in Chile, France, Ireland and the United Kingdom, No.3 in Poland and Switzerland, No.4 in Mexico, No.5 in Brazil, No.6 in Belgium, No. 7 in Denmark, No.9 in Austria and No.10 in Norway, Poland and Spain.

Spotify: Kate has today once again reached No.1 in the Global Weekly Spotify chart. Always worth pointing out that, amazingly, this means that no other song was streamed more last week on the world’s biggest streaming music service. Kate is also today No.1 yet again on the Spotify Daily Global Chart, her 10th time on top of this chart now. Around the world she is still No.1 on Spotify in Australia, Canada, Estonia, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom and the United States and Top 10 in 22 other countries. Mind-blowing. Also, Babooshka has now passed 100 million streams on Spotify!

NB: Have you downloaded your FREE copy of HomeGround Magazine‘s EPIC 134-page 40th Anniversary issue yet? All details and download link at this post here!

Stranger Things Actress Sadie Sink

We had some lovely words of thanks to Kate from Stranger Things actress Sadie Sink in this Vulture interview this week.
“….The amount of times that I’ve listened to her music over the past two years is ridiculous. It’s gotten to the point where I feel like I’ve created her in my head. I need to reach out in some way. I would love to write her a letter or something, because she played such a big role in Max’s journey. I owe her so much.
Okay, let’s get a message out to Kate right now. Sadie, what would you tell her?
A giant thank you. Not only from me, but from the character of Max and from Stranger Things in general, because she’s added so much heart to the show and her music has made such an impact on season four. It’s so wonderful knowing she thought my scene had so much heart, because I think she really played the biggest role in that.”

Press: A great article in The Quietus by Matthew Lindsay recently is well worth a read. “This song once more finds itself dropping into a bitterly divided world. But in this world polarised by misunderstanding and division, it’s unsurprising that ‘Running Up That Hill”s searing pursuit of empathy and understanding still cuts so deep, and resonates so powerfully.” The Guardian have a wonderful feature in which stars discuss what Kate’s music means to them, including Brian Molko, Peaches, Sharon Van Etten, Mike Scott from The Waterboys and Russell Mael from Sparks.

Music producer Rick Beato shares with his 3 million Youtube followers exactly what it is about the song structure of Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) that delivers such an emotional wallop. And yes, that D against E♭ dissonance is <chef’s kiss emoji>…

Director Taika Waititi claims today in an NME interview that at one point he was going to use Kate’s music in his newly released film Thor: Love and Thunder “…Yeah, there were a bunch of Kate Bush songs I wanted to have in there. We were gonna have ‘This Woman’s Work’, which was gonna be great for [a scene with] Natalie Portman’s character.”

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And to finish off this update two wonderful videos capturing the viral nature of Kate’s track and also how it has now been embraced worldwide as the anthem the world didn’t realise it needed right now; empathic, galvanising, hopeful, powerful, moving, comforting and renewing.

Korean outfit MayTree have an excellent a capella take

And, what happens when 1600 strangers in Australia have a few drinks, then learn to sing Running Up That Hill in 3 part harmony? Pub Choir joy. No wonder she’s been Number 1 there for four weeks!

NB: Have you downloaded your FREE copy of HomeGround Magazine‘s EPIC 134-page 40th Anniversary issue yet? All details and download link at this post here!

Running Up That Hill: 3rd week at UK No.1! Kate: “I just can’t believe it!”

Kate Bush Fans with Running Up That Hill singles - collage
Kate’s fans celebrate with their Running Up That Hill singles!

Kate has reached No.1 for the THIRD week in a row in the UK! Amazing! To celebrate we asked Kate’s fans to send us photos of them holding their Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) singles and you can see the large version of the image here. Thanks guys! Kate has also today scored her third consecutive week at No.1 in Ireland! And in Australia today Kate returned to No.1 after slipping to No.2 last week. So that’s three non-consecutive weeks at No.1 for her in Australia. Wow. Right, time to find some time to watch Part Two of Stranger Things season 4. What a summer!

Kate has posted on her site:

Still up on that Hill…

Whoooo Hoooo everybody!  I just can’t believe it  –  No. 1 for the third week. We’re all so excited!  In fact it’s all starting to feel a bit surreal.

    I’ve just watched the last two episodes of Stranger Things and they’re just through the roof. No spoilers here, I promise. I’d only seen the scenes that directly involved the use of the track and so I didn’t know how the story would evolve or build. I was so delighted that the Duffer Brothers wanted to use RUTH for Max’s totem but now having seen the whole of this last series, I feel deeply honoured that the song was chosen to become a part of their roller coaster journey. I can’t imagine the amount of hard work that’s gone into making something on this scale. I am in awe. They’ve made something really spectacular.

   I want to let you know about the amount of unofficial merchandise that’s out there. I haven’t seen it myself but I keep getting reports that there’s a huge amount: T-shirts, etc –  some of which is very poor quality, some of which is pretty good and could be mistaken for being official. The only official merchandise is the already existing material that’s available through the official websites.

    We hope you understand that we want to honour the energy that’s being generated by the audiences right now. An energy that feels very special, unique and quite frankly, bloody moving.
    Thanks very much everyone,
           Kate

Kate UK No.1 For Second Week!! Kate: “It’s so exciting!”

Kate’s extraordinary run of chart success continues this weekend as she is STILL No.1 in the UK singles chart for the second week in a row with Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) – we are starting to run out of superlatives here! In the week in which we heard Kate herself say “just extraordinary … quite shocking really, isn’t it? I mean, the whole world’s gone mad” – well, we will happily take the madness! Kate holds off the ubiquitous ‘As it Was’ by Harry Styles at no.2 and a fast rising chart hit ‘Afraid To Feel’ from LF System at No.3. And as we know, this is the third week running that Kate has outsold every other song on the chart, and the chart rule reset two weeks ago has rightfully sent her to the top spot for two weeks.

Today, Kate is also No. 1 in the Irish singles chart for the second week running…feeling all the love in her maternal homeland! Comhghairdeas mór, a Cháit! It’s still all so hard to take in. Don’t forget to listen to our epic Global Fan Celebration Kate Bush Fan podcast episode here!

Kate has written about her second week at the UK Number 1 AND her Irish Number 1 on her official site:

    It’s so exciting! RUTH is at No. 1 in the UK for the second week running and is now No. 1 in Ireland. My mother was Irish and would’ve really loved this.

    I’ve received so many positive messages in response to the interview on Woman’s Hour this week. I’m a great admirer of Emma Barnett who now presents the show with fellow host, Anita Rani. I really enjoyed Emma’s uncompromising stance on Newsnight and I love to hear her challenging and championing so many different issues on Woman’s Hour now. It seemed the perfect place for me to express my gratitude for the extraordinary attention the song is receiving. It took me a long time to build up the courage to listen to the interview. I was so touched, not just by Emma’s lovely comments but also by Caitlin Moran’s ‘warm up’, as she put it. Both Emma and Caitlin responded with such genuine affection to my work. It means a great deal. It really does.

     I’d also like to thank everyone in the team around me, who are just as excited with the scale of the response to the song as I am. We’ve all worked together for many years and I feel very privileged to have people with such a huge range of talents and sensitivities who are involved in the many processes that are needed to get the work out there.   

   Just a week to go until the last two episodes of Stranger Things. I can’t wait to see how the story is going to unfold. I think we’d better all hang on to our hats…

Thank you so much for your beautiful feedback and for your continued support for the song,
              Kate

Running Up That Hill updates: Kate “overwhelmed” and “really moved”

Photos by John Carder Bush from his book Kate: Inside the Rainbow

The news of Kate’s second ever Number 1 in the UK with Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) has become a huge story as the UK midweeks chart indicate that Kate could hold on to the Number 1 spot in her home country for a second week running, a story picked up by the NME here and Official Charts site here, though she of course faces competition from the likes of Drake and LF System…we will see what happens. The BBC have called it a “remarkable resurgence” in popularity for Kate. Music Week have described the result as “incredible.The Guardian called her UK Number 1 “improbable and inspiring” while Billboard says that Kate has “run a UK chart race like no other artist.” Across the Irish sea, Entertainment.ie and The Journal celebrate her Irish Number 1 chart success here and here.

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Article in Saturday’s The Guardian Newspaper

Kate herself wrote yet another heartfelt post on her official site thanking everyone for supporting the song with the headline “On Top of that Hill.

The Duffer Brothers have created four extraordinary series of Stranger Things in which the child actors have grown into young adults. In this latest series the characters are facing many of the same challenges that exist in reality right now. I believe the Duffer Brothers have touched people’s hearts in a special way, at a time that’s incredibly difficult for everyone, especially younger people.

By featuring Running Up That Hill in such a positive light – as a talisman for Max (one of the main female characters) – the song has been brought into the emotional arena of her story. Fear, conflict and the power of love are all around her and her friends.

I salute the Duffer Brothers for their courage – taking this new series into a much more adult and darker place. I want to thank them so much for bringing the song into so many people’s lives.

I’m overwhelmed by the scale of affection and support the song is receiving and it’s all happening really fast, as if it’s being driven along by a kind of elemental force.

I have to admit I feel really moved by it all.
Thank you so very much for making the song a No 1 in such an unexpected way.

Kate
Sky News report on Kate reaching Number 1 in the UK

By landing at Number 1 on the Official Singles Chart, Kate achieves three all-time Official Chart records simultaneously; the longest-ever gap between Number 1 singles (44 years since Wuthering Heights), longest time taken for a single to reach Number 1 (37 years), and, as well as being the youngest ever with Wuthering Heights aged 19, Kate also becomes the oldest female artist (at 63) ever to score a UK Number 1 single, replacing Cher, who was 52 when Believe topped the Official Singles Chart in 1998. Cher has congratulated Kate on beating her record on Twitter:

Martin Talbot, Chief Executive, Official Charts Company, comments: “It has been fantastic to see the iconic Kate Bush climbing up the Official Singles Chart with Running Up That Hill – and to see her breaking a slew of records into the bargain. The way that a new generation of music fans have taken her classic track to their hearts really does cement Kate’s position as an all-time great, if that were at all necessary.”

BBC Radio 2 had an excellent hour long Sounds of the 80s Kate Bush Special hosted by Gary Davies on Friday night and featuring our own Dave Cross selecting his favourite Kate tracks from that decade – you did an amazing job, Dave! Also featured were Midge Ure, Suzanne Vega, Moya Brennan from Clannad, Sananda Maitreya and Def Leppard‘s Joe Elliott. Listen back to the show here. BBC Radio 6 also had a two-hour Now Playing show hosted by Tom Robinson “celebrating her back catalogue with two hours of listener picked hits, hidden gems, lost classics and vintage album tracks.” Lovely to hear the likes of Houdini and Rocket’s Tail played on the radio! Listen back here.

On Celebrity Gogglebox on Channel 4 in the UK, some well-known faces were gripped by Kate’s song as they watched THAT scene from Stranger Things. Excellent.

Legendary producer, Alan Parsons has congratulated Kate in a Facebook post. He writes: “I am so thrilled for Kate Bush for making music history as the oldest song to hit #1 on the Streaming Charts and hitting #1 on Billboard Global 200! I have always had the highest regard for her artistry. Stuart Elliott and Ian Bairnson played on many of her records, and Andrew Powell (Alan Parson’s Project Orchestral Arranger) produced her first two albums.”

The Sunday Times Style Magazine has a quote from me, Seán (!), on Kate’s fashion sensibilities here. I was also briefly quoted in an article for the prestigious Christian Science Monitor newspaper by Stephen Humphries, syndicated to Yahoo News in the US, here.

Vanity Fair magazine has interviewed Stranger Things actress Sadie Sink about her thoughts on Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God).

What was your familiarity with Kate Bush before filming this season?

I did not know Kate Bush beforehand, but then I immediately skimmed through her work and then became increasingly more obsessed, and then I was listening to her all the time. I cannot even tell you how many times I’ve listened to “Running Up That Hill.” It’s been a lot, but I’m still not sick of it, which is good. [Laughs.] Knowing the emotional connection that she has to that song, and how it’s kind of her anthem, played into it. It’s something about the energy of the song, the synth and the lyrics and everything. It’s so perfect. They could not have picked a more perfect song.

So how were you listening to it as you filmed the sequence, and as you prepared for it?

I think on the day that we were filming the running sequence in episode four, we had the song playing. And I always would have it playing in my headphones. There was an actual cassette in the Walkman and I could listen to it if I wanted to, but I did do a whole day in my own time where I just was home and had it playing on in the background for the entire day, just to see if I would go insane, because that’s what Max was having to do. So I’m like, Oh, my God. Would you get sick of it? How is she doing this all day?

And you did not get sick of it!

Honestly! It just brings up so many emotions, and it’s such an epic sequence, and I feel like it’ll always be tied to that moment.

Drummer Stuart Elliott

Finally, drummer Stuart Elliott, who played drums on Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) and also on the vast majority of Kate’s albums, has been interviewed by the Percussion Discussion podcast and has some great things to say about Kate and the current global success of the song here.

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Official Charts Updates: Kate is number ONE in the UK, Ireland, Australia (2nd week at the top!), New Zealand (2nd week at the top!), Sweden, Switzerland, Norway, Austria. She is number 3 in France and remains at number 4 in Germany! She remains in the Top 5 in the USA, dropping one place from 4 to 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the USA, and she holds at #2 in Canada. Hounds of Love has reached 12 in the US Albums charts, her highest ever US album chart placement.

Billboard Charts: Kate is Number 1 on the Global 200 and No.1 in the US on both the Streaming Songs and Digital Song Sales sales charts. Also number 1 in the Billboard regional charts in Belgium, Iceland and Luxembourg.

Spotify: Kate moves down one place to #2 on the Global Weekly Spotify chart after reigning at the very top of the world’s biggest music streaming platform for a week! On the national weekly Spotify charts, she is number 1 in Australia, Belgium, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, Switzerland, UK and USA. Kate is No.1 on the daily Global Spotify viral music chart.

iTunes: Kate is number 3 in the world on iTunes, and number 1 in the US, UK, Australia, Canada, Ireland and New Zealand.

Shazam: Kate drops 1 place to number 2 in the most searched for songs on the Shazam app in the world!

KATE IS No.1 IN THE UK CHARTS!

A few short weeks ago I’d never have imagined I’d be running this headline. For us fans, it feels historic. Kate has achieved her second NUMBER ONE single in the UK Top 40, something she hasn’t done since Wuthering Heights in 1978. It reflects the huge global chart success that Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) is having after it was used so powerfully in Stranger Things on Netflix. Reaching the summit in her home country in this way feels like her crowning achievement. We’ll have all the media reaction and chart facts and figures in upcoming posts, but for now I’d simply like to congratulate Kate on her astounding success. You deserve every minute of it – Seán x

Dave Cross from HomeGround writes: “When Running Up That Hill first came out it was such a special time for us at Homeground, and all Kate fans as we watched the world catch up with Kate and her beautiful music, and now nearly 40 years later it’s quite extraordinary and a bit surreal to watch it happen again, but this time it’s bigger. Congratulations to Kate, and everyone involved. Dave xx

And here are some words from Krys on behalf of herself and Peter at HomeGround: “What a wonderful and exciting time we find ourselves in in this crazy world. Number One! Over the last couple of weeks we have watched as Running Up That Hill has exploded around the planet. It shows the power and longevity of this remarkable song. It was powerful in 1985, when most of us were in our teens and twenties. There was nothing like it – it was fresh and full of energy. Now it’s happening to a new audience: a brilliant and positive song for them to enjoy and feel just like we did then and have carried it with us ever since. Congratulations, dearest Kate. With love, Krys xxx

Kate is No.1 in Ireland!

I am THRILLED to announce that Kate is NUMBER ONE here in Ireland! FANTASTIC! First Irish singles chart #1 since Wuthering Heights in 1978!

After chart rule reset, Kate is heading for her second UK #1!

Photo by John Carder Bush from his book Kate: Inside the Rainbow

In previous posts last week we touched on the controversy surrounding a UK chart rule, called ACR (accelerated chart ratio), which prevented Kate from reaching Number 1 in the UK charts last Friday for the second time (and preventing all of us fans having a big celebratory party after 42 years!). It had been brought to the attention of the industry by Alan Jones writing about it in Music Week. The great news is that Kate’s record label has finally stepped in to request a reset of the rule for Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) – a revoking of which will hugely help Kate to score her second ever career UK Number 1 single.

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In an article today, the BBC set out to explain what happened, why the rule is there, and why it didn’t work as intended in the case of Kate’s huge viral hit:

“The Top 40 used to consist of songs you could buy in a record shop, and every sale was equal. If a record label hadn’t pressed enough copies of a 7-inch or CD single, it might miss the chart altogether. In some instances, record labels even stopped manufacturing a hit single in order to convince people to buy the album instead (Wet Wet Wet’s Love Is All Around and the Fugees’ Killing Me Softly both suffered this fate). But in the streaming era, every song is available everywhere all the time. This poses the charts with a problem. If you counted streams on a like-for-like basis, classic songs like The Killers’ Mr Brightside would never leave the Top 40; and a modern hit like Ed Sheeran’s Bad Habits would currently be spending its 50th week in the Top 10.

In order to give other artists a chance and keep the charts from becoming stale, the record industry invented something called “accelerated decline“. It works like this. A new record earns one “sale” when it is streamed 100 times on a subscription service like Apple Music or Spotify Premium; or 600 times on an ad-funded service. But older songs need to attract 200 premium / 1,200 ad-funded streams before a “sale” is counted.

The current UK midweeks chart reveals Kate out in front.

Which leads to the bizarre situation where Running Up That Hill was comfortably the most-streamed song in the UK last week (with more than 2.5 million plays) but Harry Styles was able to waltz into the number one spot because his song, As It Was, enjoyed a more favourable streams-to-sales ratio. This week, the playing field has been levelled.

The Chart Supervisory Committee, which oversees the Top 40, revoked the accelerated decline rule for Running Up That Hill over the weekend, meaning its streams are now worth the same as all the singles around it, including Harry Styles.

The situation is unusual, but not entirely without precedent. Under chart rules, the “standard” streaming ratios can be applied to any single if its sales increase by 25% week-on-week. Record labels can also request a “manual reset” to the ratio “in exceptional circumstances, where a track is being scheduled for promotion”. This is exactly what EMI Warners (Peter: you got the record company wrong, BBC!) did for Kate Bush. It’s not clear why the request took a fortnight to be enacted (the rules state that one week’s notice is sufficient) but it seems no-one could deny the feel-good factor of granting the star her first number one single since 1978’s Wuthering Heights. By Monday, the singer was already 5,000 sales ahead of Styles, a lead that’s unlikely to be surpassed.”

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Kate enters UK Album Charts at Number 4! Congratulations to the KT Fellowship!

We’re delighted to report that Kate has scored her 11th Top 5 album with Before the Dawn! Debuting last weekend as the top seller in the midweek update chart (robust pre-sales of the vinyl and CD versions greatly helped with that!), Kate has managed to hold on for a 4th place debut in the UK album chart – announced by the Official Chart today.

We know that the entire KT Fellowship (pictured below!) will be thrilled to see the album doing so well in the run up to Christmas. WARMEST CONGRATULATIONS TO YOU ALL and especially to Kate – back in the charts where she has always belonged with this stunning live set 🙂

UPDATE: Kate has posted her thanks on her official site:

A huge thank you to everyone who has supported the live album. It means so much to me and for a triple live album to go into the charts at such a high position is just extraordinary.
Wishing you a happy and restful Christmas and a great New Year ahead.
Very best wishes,
Kate

KT fellowship group photo

Before the Dawn to be filmed for DVD/Album sales surge

Inevitably, Kate has arranged for her new live show Before the Dawn, to be filmed with the intention of producing a DVD of the production. This will be done at the performances on 16th and 17th September. Some ticket holders for those shows have been notified by the venue that their seats have been moved in order to accommodate the cameras and other equipment.

Meanwhile the explosion of publicity around the live shows, which we already knew had propelled all of Kate’s albums back into the charts, has produced a sales surge on Amazon averaging 2,813%. This however conceals an 8,000% increase in sales of The Red Shoes, and a 5,000% increase in sales of Hounds of Love.

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Running Up That Hill re-enters UK singles chart

More UK chart action for Kate! In today’s mid week Chart update Kate’s original version of Running Up That Hill is No 31. This follows Bo Bruce’s performance of the song on ‘The Voice’ on Saturday.

Please be aware that this is just the midweek chart and only features sales from Sunday and Monday, so the final position will be lower on this Sunday, but it’s still fantastic that once again thousands of people are responding to Kate’s songs!

Update: Kate’s final position in the chart was 51, with sales of 6,011.

Wuthering Heights re-enters Australian Top 40

As a consequence of Laura Bunting performing Wuthering Heights on ‘The Voice Australia’, Kate’s original recording of the track has re-entered the Australian Top 40 singles chart at no.39.

Edit: Chart Commentary from Noise11: “Kate Bush’s ‘Wuthering Heights’ classic re-entering at 39, presumably due to a whole generation who had never heard it until it was performed by a contestant on the show.”

This Woman’s Work in final Top 75 – also twice

On today’s UK singles chart the Maxwell version of This Woman’s Work is at 41 and Kate’s original version at 63, shame neither made the 40 but it does mean several thousand people have downloaded the song this week and all from one TV performance of half the song.

Edit: Music Week chart commentary … Also benefitting from being covered on The Voice UK, This Woman’s Work debuts at number 41 (7,072 sales) for Maxwell, 11 years after it reached number 58 in America. The original recording of the song, by Kate Bush – a number 25 hit here in 1989 – re-enters the chart at number 63 (4,813 sales).

This Woman’s Work returns to top 40 – twice!

In the midweek UK Singles chart both versions of ‘This Woman’s Work’ are in the top 40! Maxwell is at 28 and Kate at 38. Following the performance of the song on Saturday’s Britian’s Got Talent on Saturday night.

This Chart is sales from Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, so both will probably drop on the final chart released on Sunday afternoon but this is still great news and we welcome this increased exposure for one of Kate’s most popular songs.

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