Kate Bush has topped the ARIA Singles chart for the first time in her career,with a song released 37 years ago.
Running Up That Hill,from her 1985 albumHounds of Love,is,in fact,nearly a full decade older than pop star Harry Styles,the artist who now sits second on the latest chart with his hit singleAs It Was.
It might seem strange that a 63-year-old art rocker could edge out a global superstar like Styles without releasing any new music,but the news probably won’t be a surprise to anyone paying attention to popular culture over the last two weeks.
A whole new generation of fans have discovered Bush’s song after it was included in a pivotal scene in the latest season of Netflix hitStranger Things, and they’ve since been smashing the track on Spotify,YouTube and TikTok.
According to Tokboard,a site that aggregates usage trends on the platform,Running Up That Hill is the third most popular song used on TikTok boastingmore than 1 billion plays.
This spike in popularity is being seen in international charts too. The song is also number one in New Zealand,Switzerland and Sweden – and it’s well on its way in other countries.Running Up That Hill is currently listed at number eight on the Billboard Hot 100 and number two on the Official UK Singles Chart.
This is the first time one of Bush’s singles has cracked the top 10 in the US. And it’s the song’s best performance in the UK,after peaking at number three back in 1985. (It previously peaked at number six in Australia).
One of Bush’s song most iconic songs,Wuthering Heights,did take out number one on the Kent Music Report (a precursor to the modern ARIA charts) for three weeks back in 1978,but in the era of ARIA this is the first time the singer has reached the milestone.