Cher has congratulated Kate Bush for breaking her record as the oldest female singer to reach number one in the United Kingdom.
37 years after its first release, Bush's "Running Up That Hill" finally topped the U.K. singles chart on Friday, thanks to its prominent role in the Netflix blockbuster "Stranger Things."
The accomplishment displaces Cher from the record books, since Bush, at 63 years old, is 11 years older than Cher was when her dance single Believe topped the charts in 1998.
Cher tweeted after learning she'd lost her record: "Bravo Kate. Records are meant to be broken. Remember back in the day, when women had short sell-by dates We had to fight our way through the testosterone curtain, and we did it so the girls who came after us could sing as long as they want to. Mega respect."
Bush is now the fifth-oldest musician to have a No. 1 single in the United Kingdom. She is followed by Captain Sir Tom Moore, who was 99 years old when his charity version of You'll Never Walk Alone topped the charts in 2020, Elton John, Tom Jones, and Louis Armstrong.
In a blog post on her website, the notoriously quiet celebrity expressed her happiness at the song's revived popularity.
She wrote, "I'm overwhelmed by the scale of affection and support the song is receiving and it's all happening really fast, as if it's being driven along by a kind of elemental force," she wrote. "I have to admit I feel really moved by it all. Thank you so very much for making the song a No. 1 in such an unexpected way."
It is Kate's first time at number one since 1978, when she was 19 and her debut single, Wuthering Heights, peaked at number one. This also means she holds the record for the longest time between number-one singles, at 44 years.
"Running Up That Hill" is presently number one in Australia, New Zealand, Sweden, and Switzerland, and has reached a new peak of number four in the United States.
It debuted at number three in the UK and returned to the chart in 2012 at number twelve.
Kate remarked that she was "overwhelmed by the magnitude of passion and support" for the song as she thanked fans for making it the number one single.
She also commended the producers of the popular horror program for "putting the music into the lives of so many people."
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