Kate Bush shares a message of support for striking nurses
Throughout her career, Kate Bush has continually dodged the spotlight, famously taking a 35-year-hiatus from the stage until her 2014 return with her Before The Dawn residency in Hammersmith. But every year, she offers fans a little glimpse into her inner world with an annual Christmas message posted to her ‘Fish People’ official website.
In this year’s message, the singer called for the end of the war in Ukraine, as well as rallying behind striking nurses. Musing on where we’ll all be next year, she said: “I hope the war will end. I hope that the nurses will be in a position where they are appreciated – they should be cherished. 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.”
She also touched on her shock at the revival her 1985 single ‘Running Up That Hill’ enjoyed this year, having topped the UK singles chart following its inclusion in the Netflix hit Stranger Things.
“It’s been a crazy, roller coaster year for me,” wrote the trailblazing star. “I still reel from the success of RUTH, being the No 1 track of this summer. What an honour! It was really exciting to see it doing so well globally, but especially here in the UK and Australia; and also to see it making it all the way to No 3 in the US. It was such a great feeling to see so many of the younger generation enjoying the song. It seems that quite a lot of them thought I was a new artist! I love that! Again, thank you so much to everyone who supported the track and made it a hit.”
She also shared her thoughts on the Queen’s passing, saying: “I don’t 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. “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.”
Accompanying the festive message was a picture of a robin, which Bush said symbolises not only Christmas but hope, citing Emily Dickson’s words that: “Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul.” Signing off the letter, she shared the optimistic message: “I‘d like to think that this Christmas, when joy is so hard to find, hope will perch in all our souls. Merry Christmas!”
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