Catherine "Kate" Bush, CBE (born 30 July 1958) is an English singer-songwriter, musician and record producer. She is known for her eclectic and experimental music as well as her idiosyncratic performances and is known to employ varied influences and meld disparate styles, often within a single song or over the course of an album.
Bush first came to note in 1978 when, 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. Elements of Bush's lyrics often employ historical or literary references, as embodied in her first single "Wuthering Heights", which is based on Emily Brontë's novel of the same name. She has described herself as a storyteller who embodies the character singing the song and has dismissed efforts by others to conceive of her work as autobiographical.
Bush has been nominated 13 times for British Phonographic Industry accolades, and in 1987 she won a Brit Award for Best British Female Artist. During the course of her career, she has also been nominated for three Grammy Awards. In 2002, she was recognised with an Ivor Novello Award for Outstanding Contribution to British Music. Bush was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2013 New Year Honours for services to music
