Kate Bush's Real Name: Catherine Bush

Quick answer: Kate Bush's documented given name is Catherine Bush. Encyclopaedia Britannica records that form and gives her birth date as July 30, 1958, in Bexleyheath, Kent, England. The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame profile of her career identifies her as the writer and performer of "Wuthering Heights" and Hounds of Love (Encyclopaedia Britannica; Rock & Roll Hall of Fame).

Real name and early life

Britannica lists the name Catherine Bush and says she was the youngest child of an artistic family: her father, a doctor, played the piano, and her mother, a nurse, had competed as a folk dancer in her native Ireland. She studied violin and piano and, by age 14, had begun writing her own compositions. Two years later a family friend introduced her to Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour, who helped her win a contract with EMI Records. She then took vocal lessons and studied dance and mime in London while preparing her first recordings.

Career highlights

In 1978 she released her first single, "Wuthering Heights," inspired by Emily Bronte's novel; it became a number-one hit in Britain and boosted her debut album, The Kick Inside. Lionheart followed the same year. After an exhausting European tour she focused mainly on recording, Britannica says. Never for Ever (1980) included "Babooshka." On The Dreaming (1982), the first album she produced entirely on her own, she used new synthesizer technology. She reached a critical and commercial peak with Hounds of Love (1985) and its single "Running Up That Hill." Later studio albums included The Sensual World (1989) and The Red Shoes (1993). In 2002 she received the Ivor Novello Award for Outstanding Contribution to British Music, Britannica records. The Rock Hall notes that she was the first artist to use a headset microphone onstage, beginning with her 1979 Tour of Life, and that she was inducted in 2023. After a long hiatus she returned with Aerial (2005) and, in 2014, her first concerts in 35 years. In 2022 "Running Up That Hill" featured in the Netflix series Stranger Things and returned to charts in many countries, reaching number three on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States, a revival the Rock Hall also records.

Name notes for searchers

Catherine Bush is the documented given name; she has been known professionally as Kate Bush. Searchers looking for the singer of "Wuthering Heights" or "Running Up That Hill," or the artist behind Hounds of Love, are usually aiming at the same person.