Catherine Bush CBE (born 30 July 1958) is an English singer, songwriter, record producer, and dancer. In 1978, at the age of 19, she topped the UK Singles Chart for four weeks with her debut single “Wuthering Heights”, becoming the first female artist to achieve a UK number one with a self-written song. Bush has since released 25 UK Top 40 singles, including the Top 10 hits “The Man with the Child in His Eyes”, “Babooshka”, “Running Up That Hill”, “Don’t Give Up” (a duet with Peter Gabriel), and “King of the Mountain”. All ten of her studio albums reached the UK Top 10, with all but one reaching the top five, including the UK number one albums Never for Ever (1980), Hounds of Love (1985) and the greatest hits compilation The Whole Story (1986). She was the first British solo female artist to top the UK album charts and the first female artist to enter the album chart at number one.

Bush began writing songs at 11. She was signed to EMI Records after Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour helped produce a demo tape. Her debut album, The Kick Inside, was released in 1978. Bush slowly gained artistic independence in album production and has produced all her studio albums since The Dreaming (1982). She took a hiatus between her seventh and eighth albums, The Red Shoes (1993) and Aerial (2005). Bush drew attention again in 2014 with her concert residency Before the Dawn, her first shows since 1979’s The Tour of Life. In 2022, “Running Up That Hill” received renewed attention after it appeared in the Netflix series Stranger Things, becoming Bush’s second UK number one and reaching the top of several other charts. It also reached number 3 on the US Billboard Hot 100, and its parent album, Hounds of Love, became Bush’s first album to reach the top of a Billboard albums chart.

Bush’s eclectic musical style, unconventional lyrics, performances and literary themes have influenced a diverse range of artists. She has received 13 Brit Awards nominations, winning for Best British Female Artist in 1987, and has been nominated for three Grammy Awards. In 2002, Bush was recognised with an Ivor Novello Award for Outstanding Contribution to British Music. She was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2013 New Year Honours for services to music. She also became a Fellow of The Ivors Academy in the UK in 2020. That year, Rolling Stone ranked Hounds of Love at number 68 on their list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. In 2021, “Running Up That Hill” was also listed at number 60 in Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. In 2023, she was ranked at number 60 on Rolling Stone’s list of the 200 Greatest Singers of All Time. Bush was selected for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2023.

Bush was born on 30 July 1958 in Bexleyheath, Kent, to an English doctor, general practitioner Robert Bush (1920–2008), and Hannah Patricia (née Daly) (1918–1992), an Irish staff nurse, daughter of a farmer in County Waterford. She grew up with her elder brothers, John and Paddy, in a 350-year-old former farmhouse at East Wickham near Welling, which neighbours Bexleyheath. Bush came from an artistic background: her mother was an amateur traditional Irish dancer, her father was an amateur pianist, Paddy worked as a musical instrument maker, and John was a poet and photographer. Both brothers were involved in the local folk music scene. She was raised as a Roman Catholic.

Bush trained at Goldsmiths College karate club where her brother John was a karate instructor. There she became known as “Ee-ee” because of her squeaky kiai. Her family’s musical influence inspired Bush to teach herself the piano at the age of 11. She also played the organ in a barn behind her parents’ house and studied the violin. She soon began composing songs, eventually adding her own lyrics.

Bush attended St Joseph’s Convent Grammar School, a Catholic girls’ school in nearby Abbey Wood. During this time, her family produced a demo tape with over 50 of her compositions, which was turned down by record labels. Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour received the demo from Ricky Hopper, a mutual friend of Gilmour and the Bush family. Impressed, Gilmour helped the 16-year-old Bush record a more professional demo tape. Bush recorded three tracks, paid for by Gilmour. The tape was produced by Gilmour’s friend Andrew Powell; Powell later produced Bush’s first two albums, and sound engineer Geoff Emerick, who had worked with the Beatles. The tape was sent to EMI executive Terry Slater who signed Bush.

“Every female you see at a piano is either Lynsey de Paul or Carole King. And most male music–not all of it but the good stuff–really lays it on you. It really puts you against the wall and that’s what I like to do. I’d like my music to intrude. Not many females succeed with that.” Bush, speaking to Melody Maker magazine in 1977. The British record industry was reaching a point of stagnation. Progressive rock was very popular and visually oriented rock performers were growing in popularity, thus record labels looking for the next big thing were considering experimental acts.