Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)” has reached 1 billion streams on Spotify after exploding in 2022, when it became a viral sensation after being featured in Stranger Things Season 4.
On June 21, Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)” reached 1 billion streams on Spotify, less than a year after achieving 500 million plays on the platform.
The song exploded in 2022, becoming a viral phenomenon after being featured in Stranger Things Season 4, and was named the most-streamed throwback song of the year as part of Spotify’s 2022 Wrapped campaign when streams of the song increased by more than 8,700% globally.
It was the most-streamed song in the world in June 2022 and #3 on the Billboard Global 200 the following month. Analysts at Luminate believe that between the week of May 27 and the end of June 2022, Kate Bush may have earned around $2.3 million in streaming royalties.
With this new milestone, the singer took to her website to post a message to her fans similar to the one she wrote last year.
“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. Each one of these streams is one of you,” writes Kate Bush on her website. “Thank you! Thank you so much for sending this song on such an impossibly astonishing journey. I’m blown away.”
“I’m overwhelmed by the scale of affection and support the song is receiving,” Bush wrote about the song’s popularity last year. “I have to admit I feel really moved by it all.”
The 1985 single — to which Kate Bush owns the entire copyright and all the original recordings of her songs through her independent record label, Noble & Brite — has achieved heights previously thought unfathomable for the nearly-forty-year-old track.
But the popularity of Stranger Things made kings of all its retro hits, with “Running Up That Hill” and Metallica’s “Master of Puppets” featuring heavily in the season’s storyline. “Master of Puppets” jumped to the #1 spot on the iTunes Rock Chart after being featured in the show.
