We can confirm that 50 Words For Snow has charted in the UK official album charts at no 5, as announced on BBC Radio 1, this is Kate’s 10th top 5 album, out of 11 releases.
As long time HomeGround reader Paul Thomas has pointed out, “this makes her the only female artist to have top 5 albums across 5 decades..70s, 80s, 90s, 00s and this new decade (whatever this decade is called..) – I am very proud to be a fan and so pleased she is still makimg exceptional music – and she hasn’t done any tv to promote the album; the record sales are down to her loyal fanbase and her reputation as the best and most original female artist of all time..shall I stop banging on about her now??“
Big congratulations to Kate, Del and everyone else involved.
Dave, Krys, Peter and Seán. xxxx
UPDATE: We hear that 50 Words has entered the German charts at #7, Netherlands Album chart at no. 10, and the Norweigen album chart at no. 18, Ireland at no.12, Belgium at no.27, Australia at no. 22 and Finland at no. 11. The album has entered the Billboard charts in the US at number 83 (and a number 7 entry in the US Independent album chart). More as we get them.
Alberto Di Costanzo
This is a great achievement for Kate Bush, in an era were everything is x factor brannded “talent ” type of pop idols…. The chart has all x factors type of singers/band and it is quite remearkable Kate has made a Top 5 with an extraordinary album, not a pop one.
All the above acts have been on TV and on different specials like maniacs…. Kate proved she does need all that to sell, she has talent and yes she has the real x factor, this will never go away. Wow, 30+ years of surprised from the most iconic International artist the world has never had the lack to have. Well done Kate!! 🙂
J.
Congradulations !
Well done !
Rod
What a fabulous achievement. Well done KB, the Snowmem, the guest artists, and all the Fish People. Thank you for this wonderful present.
Mandy
Well done Kate and everyone at Fish People. Wonderful album and a fantastic achievement! 🙂
Izzy
Actually, Kate had 5 decades of TOP 3 albums.
Alberto Di Costanzo
YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY RIGHT, IZZY I WAS LOOKING AT THE CHARTS….. I THINK NOBODY DID THAT!!!!! WELL, KATE DID IT 🙂
Izzy
The truth is nobody did that with self-written music before, at least no Brit for sure (you can check B. Streisand for example, she’s close! 😉 but you know… ). The amount of work and devotion Kate Bush put in her albums is incredible. Kate is a genius. An incomparable genius. I’m so happy I discovered her music (which is, to me, a brilliant form of art).
Cheers.
Alberto Di Costanzo
This is one of the reasons she is special, writing her own songs, originality of her own songs, I am not surprised she has such a brilliant portfolio, even if she has not made a T.V. appearance for one of her songs for nearly 20 years… still she is selling very well, and she is selling with a non pop album!!
Alan
I’m feeling a bit disappointed it’s not top 3 though, as it deserved to be. I suppose I was hoping for top 3 as only Lionheart hadn’t been. Sorry to put a damper on it.
Alberto Di Costanzo
IT IS NOT OVER YET…… PLUS THIS ALBUM IS A CLASSIC ALREADY!!!
ThatBoyLuke
Even though “Director’s Cut” was No2 amd “50 words… ” is No5 it actually sold more copies than “Director’s cut which i think is great 🙂
Nanette
Glass half-empty, Alan? 😉
Alan
I suppose. And she has already had a number 2 album this year!!!
Neil
Hard to see how it can improve thought with xmas fodder like greatest hits, eldildo etc comming out soon all with huge promotions.Still i know which will be listened to in years to come
Barbara
Eldildo – I like it! When those four stuffed shirts were on Strictly bellowing ‘Time To Say Goodbye’, I wondered why they kept Aerial off Number One in the Album Charts in 2005!
The cod-operatic equivalent of Joe Dolce’s Shaddap You Face keeping Ultravox’s ‘Vienna’ off the Number One slot in the singles chart?
edov
I read sumwere dat actual nmbr of sales are higher then for directors c. Just more competition in the field these weeks. Anyone has real nrs?
jason cattermole
Kate u r Gr8 ! What an achievement, wow , incredible, amazing, fantastic and believable…. will enjoy this sublime album for years to come. Thank you Kate for your continued gifts to all who have open ears. xx
John
I’m sure the decision to release the album this week was sales motivated, and it appears to have paid off. Who wants a number 1 album with half the sales? lol
Congratulations, Kate. It’s really reassuring in this day and age that someone can achieve something without prancing around in a bikini, eating insects or doing ‘prolific’ charity work!
Nanette
For all we know, she might do all those things–especially the charity part. The good thing is that, because she has established a firm line between public and private, we never get to hear about it.
Atro
No. 11 on the Finnish album list.
Tel
From Misic week / 28 Nov 11: “50 Words For Snow, debuts at number five (49,812 sales) just 27 weeks after Director’s Cut debuted and peaked at number two, on sales of 34,755”.
ARoseGrowingOld
Regardless of one’s reaction to her very idiosyncratic music:
1) No solo woman musician had ever achieved anything like the success of her first 3 albums and her tour by the age of only 22
2) She’s had a top 3 album in the UK charts in 5 successive decades:
1970s (The Kick Inside)
1980s (Never Forever, The Dreaming, Hounds of Love, The Sensual World)
1990s (The Red Shoes)
2000s (Aerial)
2010s (Director’s Cut)
And she wrote every track and every line of music on all of these…
3) She doesn’t do entourages, agents, PR-men, ad campaigns (or tours anymore – dammit) – all her success is down to the emotional connections she builds with her audience (which is why those who love her music sometimes lose their objectivity
Izzy
I’m printing and framing it.
Thanks, ARGO! x
Nanette
I told my basic composition class about Kate Bush today. (Eighteen-year-old college students–they’d never heard of her.) When I told them that KB decided that her career was about making music and not being famous, they were all suitably impressed. They started to look her up on their smartphones, but I asked them to wait until after class.
Izzy
My 16-18-year old students were equally impressed when I told them about Kate (they always ask about their teacher’s hobbies, don’t they?) and wanted to know more. Some of them were 2Pac fans and heard of Kate but never listened to her. So I brought a couple of songs and introduced them to one of England’s national treasures, actually two of them (Peter Gabriel included). They loved ‘Oh England My Lionheart’.
Younger students loved ‘Babooshka’, both the song and the video. It’s a great source of Past Tenses practice 😉 They asked me ‘why isn’t she famous, why isn’t she on TV? She’s so pretty!’. They also loved the Beatles. 12-year olds from Central Europe.
xx
Mark
I hope she makes the billboard top 200!
Jeff
just want to add
that this will be be remembered as a
– BANNER YEAR –
in the KB archives and hall of records
BSB
From Music Week –
With as much as 12 years between releases, Kate Bush is a notoriously slow worker but her second album of the year, 50 Words For Snow, debuts at number five (49,812 sales) just 27 weeks after Director’s Cut – featuring new versions of tracks from previous efforts The Sensual World and The Red Shoes – debuted and peaked at number two, on sales of 34,755. Comprising seven lengthy, experimental tracks on a wintery theme, it extends the 53 year old’s unbroken string of Top 10 albums to 11 (including a hits set) since her 1978 debut.
Millais
Toasting to a new success for Kate and all the people involved in the album. Thank you for all these years of thrills and passionate music, breathtaking vocals and amazing experimentation. Waiting for more to come…
Michael
As an American, I’m writing this as I listen to “Joanni” in the background and I wish that I could witness the same Kate Bush chart success that I have seen going on for decades in the UK. Nevertheless, I am happy when I see Kate’s work hit the Billboard Top 200 Albums Chart and I wish a heartfelt congratulations to this talented, beautiful, exceptional artist. For the other American Kate fans, regardless of where “50 Words” places on our charts, at least we get to experience a musical gift that is simply incomparable. She is so head-and-shoulders above almost everyone musically that I almost find it embarassing for other artists.
Mark
Agree. Aerial was number 48 after a 12 year absence, and she has never been big here to begin with so that was definetely an accomplishment. DC was 19 on the tastemakers chart and number 36 on independent albums. But this is a real new album I think it will do better.
Michael
I remember being a very young Kate fan in the 1980s watching “The Dreaming” album hit the bottom 100 of the charts. And then the excitement grew as the years progressed when I saw the albums “Hounds of Love” and “The Red Shoes” hit the Top 30 and “The Sensual World” hit the Top 50 and actually go Gold in the States. Obviously, chart placement doesn’t always equal quality (as we see with most albums and artists) but I imagine it must be satisfying in the UK to see Kate’s work so recognized and appreciated. I am just happy and excited for her.
karen
Congrats to Kate and everyone involved in the album. It’s about time some serious awards were given to Kate. She really deserves some credit or is it that she’s so low key she slips under the radar,. A Brits outstanding contribution award should be given for a start. Five decades of music is quite amazing.
Tim
I entirely agree Karen! I have been thinking the same thing ( about the Brits ) for some time now. I’ve heard Kate was offered an outstanding contribution award but turned it down as it would have meant she would have had to perform live. Does anyone know if this is true? And yes, five decades of music is quite something especially being almost totally self-written.
ThatBoyLuke
It probably is true, it’s also probably why “Aerial” and probably this album won’t be nominated for the Mercury Prize imo.
Pharoah
Totally agree that a lifetime achievement award should be going her way at the Brits along with best album. I wouldn’t hold my breathe though! best album normally means best selling, irrespective of quality of songs.
Speaking of awards what about Kate Bush OBE?
Neil
She turned down a Brits contributuion award i think.Good job too as its just the music equivalent of giving someone a clock when they retire.
Rod
I have no idea whether or not KB would welcome an Honour, but I’d like to see her Knighted, or made a Knight, like Joan of Arc, rather than a Dame. Marianne Faithfull had a point describing her as a national treasure.
Gio Willis
This is a great achievement for the newborn Fish Records. The album is excellent.
nel mayor
Still don’t like the Elton duet….too ernest and Elton’s too well known,his presence distracts from the song.A good fan can be critical like a good friend can be.AdoreTahoe to bits.
Rinfy The Gypsy
Does Kate really deserve an honour? Not really. Sure she is everything people describe her to be: Unique, Talented, Genius etc etc. But does that deserve an honour? No. By her own admission, she doesn’t make music to please people, she makes it and is just pleased other people happen to like it. So, she’s not exactly got us in mind when she does anything. She’s never swayed or pressured to do anything she doesn’t want to do. So, fundamentally, she simply does what she want’s, when she wants and nothing more. That’s hardly in the spirit of the honours system. To be honest, there are nurses and others that work harder for no recognition. Kate happens to be naturally, amazingly creative, but I can’t really see she works hard at it! You don’t work at being a genius, you just are one and just being something does not deserve a reward. It’s what you do above and beyond your talent or skills that might deserve reward. I don’t think Kate have ever engaged in anything beyond making music that pleases her. I could spend years in a studio working all gods hours and release an album. No one would buy it. Just because Kate does the same and people buy it, does not make her efforts any more worthy than mine.
And before people rant on about other less worthy people that have honours, that isn’t justification for Kate to be rewarded. On that basis, Kylie should be a Dame by now. Heck, even Steps would probably deserve something for their sales achievements. I’d have to question the reason and logic for most of the OBEs, CBEs, MBEs etc that are given to any celebrity (with a few exceptions). We don’t know if Kate is a massively charitable person, I expect she has her moments, but probably no more than you or I. If she did, we’d hear about it.
I love her work, she deserves industry recognition, but she doesn’t deserve an honour. She has NEVER made music for us, it’s just luck that we like it. (Though not all of it;)
John
I adore Kate’s music as much as the next person but I agree wholeheartedly with this statement.
I also think the Honours system is a joke. Sir Bruce Forsyth for heavens sake! The man is a presenter; an entertaining one maybe, who has been richly rewarded already. I think the system regularly makes fools out of those that support it.
I’m more than happy with Kate Bush, the exceptional musician. There’s nothing to add to that that would make her any better.
Nanette
“Kate happens to be naturally, amazingly creative, but I can’t really see she works hard at it! You don’t work at being a genius, you just are one and just being something does not deserve a reward. It’s what you do above and beyond your talent or skills that might deserve reward. ”
Geniuses often work incredibly hard, in my experience. People tend to believe in the romantic idea that music, art and writing “just flows” and is the product of inspiration. In reality, artists who are really good are good because they take time to develop their talents. Malcolm Gladwell did some research on the subject, and noted that people at the top of their fields spend at least 3 hours a day, every day, on their art before they reach the pinnacle of their fields. Shave a few years off for Kate’s extraordinariness, but really–she probably went right to the piano every night as soon as she got home from school. She has the genius, but she also has the drive.
I agree about the honours, though. Honours are for people who would not be recognized in other ways. There are other venues for recognizing Kate Bush’s extraordinary achievements.
Paulo
50 words has also charted at #82 at billboard charts selling 16,835!
http://pulsemusic.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=gmn&action=display&thread=111644&page=2
Karin (Belgium)
So I’m not the only one in Belgium who bought the album! I’ll be darned and happy. 50 words for snow and Aerial are definitely my favorites. All her other work also 🙂
Mark
Good news Paulo!
nel
Huge drop to 26 after only 2 weeks.Not surprised really .All her fans will have bought it by now and hard to access new fans with long tracks that will find difficult access to radio.Perhaps Among angels may make a good single?Feel new generation may be missing out.