The singer’s annual Christmas message talks of the highs and lows of 2022 (Picture: Trevor Leighton/Fish People/AFP via Getty Images)
It’s been quite a year for Kate Bush, who reflected on the highs and lows of 2022 in her annual Christmas message.
The British singer-songwriter enjoyed a resurgence in popularity this year after one of her signature tracks, Running Up That Hill, featured in the Netflix show Stranger Things, but her message on her website reflected on the tougher times too.
Posting a photo of a robin perched on a branch, the 64-year-old admitted she did not think ‘any of us have ever known a year like this one.’
‘Life became incredibly frightening in the pandemic, but just as we think it might be over soon, it seems to keep going. It’s a bombardment – the horrific war in Ukraine, the famines, the droughts, the floods… and we lost our Queen,’ she said of the lower points of the last 12 months.
The death of The Queen, she says, became a touchstone for the grief so many experienced throughout the pandemic.
‘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,’ the Wuthering Heights singer continued.
The icon’s music reached a whole new generation in 2022 (Picture: Alamy Stock Photo)
It was, she added, ‘a crazy, rollercoaster year’ for her musically after her 1985 track went to number one, giving it a ‘whole new lease of life.’ It became the UK’s biggest song of the summer – nearly 40 years after its release.
Bush’s song is first played in the (excellent) season four soundtrack in its first episode, as Max Mayfield (Sadie Sink) listens to it on her Walkman, before receiving greater prominence in episode four of season four’s volume one drop.
Its inclusion on the monster hit show’s soundtrack sparked a big resurgence in interest in Bush’s track and wider musical output, with some of the show’s younger fans discovering it all for the first time.
Kate said she couldn’t have foreseen the renewed success of Running up that Hill, thanks to Netflix’s Stranger Things (Picture: BACKGRID)
‘It was such a great feeling to see so many of the younger generation enjoying the song,’ she said. ‘It seems that quite a lot of them thought I was a new artist! I love that!’
Looking ahead to 2023, she voiced her support for the striking NHS nurses and wish for the war to end, never forgetting to try and find hope wherever it may be.
‘I hope the war will end. I hope that the nurses will be in a position where they are appreciated – they should be cherished,’ she continued.
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‘Let’s all hope that next year will be better than this one. 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. Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul.’
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‘Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul.’
