Kate Bush’s 1985 classic “Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God)” has reached 1 billion streams on Spotify. To celebration the occasion, the reclusive artist thanked her fans for listening in a new message posted to her website.
“A billion streams! I have an image of a river that suddenly floods and becomes many, many tributaries — a billion streams — on their way to the sea,” Bush said. “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.”
“Running Up That Hill” re-entered the cultural consciousness last year after being featured in Season 4 of Stranger Things. After the Netflix series introduced the song to a new generation, it rocketed to the top of US and UK charts and inspired Bush to grant a rare interview about its success. In the wake of its resurgence, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Read our ranking of Bush’s 10 Best Songs here, then revisit our feature on the joys of discovering music through film and television.