Kate Bush

Kate Bush (born 1958) became the first woman to top the UK charts with a self-written song when “Wuthering Heights” hit number one in 1978, when she was 19. Albums like Hounds of Love made her one of pop’s great originals; a 2022 Stranger Things sync sent “Running Up That Hill” back to number one and introduced her to a new generation. She is also famously private, rarely making public statements of any kind.

A silent protest

That is what made February 2025 notable: Bush recorded one of the twelve tracks on Is This What We Want?, the silent album organized by Ed Newton-Rex and credited to more than 1,000 UK artists — among them Damon Albarn, New Order, and Paul McCartney. The tracks capture empty studios, and their titles spell out “The British Government Must Not Legalise Music Theft To Benefit AI Companies.” Proceeds go to the charity Help Musicians.

In her accompanying statement Bush warned that if the government’s planned copyright changes went ahead, the life’s work of the country’s musicians would be handed to AI companies for free, and asked whether, in the music of the future, artists’ voices would go unheard. She also signed the May 2025 open letter to Keir Starmer backing transparency requirements for AI training.

Bush has said little else publicly about AI itself; her intervention is aimed squarely at the UK policy, not the technology. But from an artist who goes decades between public gestures, a silent track was among the loudest statements of the campaign.