Kate Bush was born Catherine Bush in July 1958 in Bexleyheath, Kent, and came from an artistic background, with her mother a former Irish folk dancer, her father an accomplished pianist, and her brothers Paddy and John working as a musical instrument maker and a poet and photographer respectively. At 11, Kate began to play the piano, started to write her own tunes and eventually added lyrics to them. Her family produced a demo tape with over 50 of her compositions, but it was rejected by record labels. Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour received the demo from Ricky Hopper (a mutual friend of Gilmour and the Bush family), and, liking what he heard, helped Bush record a more professional sounding demo tape, produced by his friend Andrew Powell (who would go on to produce Bush's first 2 albums). The tape was sent to EMI executive Terry Slater (who would become famous for signing The Sex Pistols), and, impressed, Slater signed Bush. By this time Bush had written and made demos of close to 200 songs, a few of which can be found on bootleg recordings, known as the “Phoenix Recordings”. During 1977 Bush fronted the KT Bush Band, performing in pubs around London with 3 other members - Del Palmer (bass), Brian Bath (guitar), and Vic King (drums).

Bush began recording her first album in August 1977, and despite her experiences with the KT Bush Band, was persuaded to use established session musicians, some of whom were retained even after she had brought her original bandmates back on board. “The Kick Inside” was released in 1978, and contained some songs that had been written when Bush was 13. Lead single "Wuthering Heights" topped both the UK (for 4 weeks) and Australian charts, with Bush becoming the first woman to reach number 1 in the UK with a self penned song. Second single, "The Man with the Child in His Eyes", reached number 6 in the UK, number 85 on the US Billboard Hot 100, and won her a 1979 Ivor Novello Award for “Outstanding British Lyric”.

Late 1978 saw EMI persuade Bush to quickly record a follow-up album, “Lionheart”, to take advantage of the success of her debut. It was rushed out of the studio in Nice, in southern France, making it her only album to be wholly recorded outside the UK, and reached number 6 in the UK Album charts. However, Bush expressed dissatisfaction with it, and in response set up her own publishing company, Kate Bush Music, and her own management company, Novercia, in order to maintain complete control over her work, with the board of directors of these companies comprised of herself and her family members. During the promotional tour for “Lionheart”, Bush became the first singer to use a wireless headset radio microphone on stage, allowing her to incorporate extensive dance routines into her live shows.

After providing backing vocals on Peter Gabriel's third album in early 1980, her own third album, “Never for Ever” was released, co-produced with Jon Kelly and representing Bush's second foray into production (her first time as a producer was on the “Live On Stage” EP, released after her previous year’s tour). It was her first LP to top the UK Album charts, making her the first female Briton ever to achieve that status, and the single "Babooshka" reached number 5 in the UK. That year she also released a stand alone Christmas single (which wasn’t featured on any album) entitled "December Will Be Magic Again", which reached number 29. September 1982 saw the release of “The Dreaming”, the first album Bush produced entirely by herself. It became her first to enter the US charts (although only reached number 157), and climbed to number 3 in the UK Album chart. However, singles from the album weren’t received very well in the UK, "Sat in Your Lap" peaked at number 11, but the title track (featuring Rolf Harris on the didgeridoo, and Percy Edwards) fizzled out at number 48 and third single "There Goes a Tenner" didn’t chart at all (critically acclaimed track "Suspended in Gaffa" wasn’t released as a single in the UK).

1985’s “Hounds of Love” topped the UK charts, ousting Madonna's “Like a Virgin” from the number 1 position, and single "Running Up That Hill" achieved number 30 on the US Billboard Hot 100. The album earned Bush 4 nominations at the 1986 BRIT Awards. The following year, Bush and Peter Gabriel had a UK Top 10 hit with "Don't Give Up", and EMI released her greatest hits album "The Whole Story". In 1987, Bush won the BRIT Award for “Best Female Solo Artist”. Her sixth studio LP, “The Sensual World”, released in 1989, became her biggest-selling album in the US (receiving an RIAA Gold certification 4 years after its release for 500,000 copies sold) and reached number 2 in the UK Album charts. The songs "Deeper Understanding", "Never Be Mine", and "Rocket's Tail" all feature backing vocals by the Bulgarian vocal ensemble the Trio Bulgarka.

During the next 4 years her only work was a 1991 cover of Elton John's "Rocket Man", which reached number 12 in the UK singles chart (and was voted the greatest cover ever by readers of The Observer newspaper in 2007), and on November 1993, “The Red Shoes” was released, featuring guest contributions from the late composer and conductor Michael Kamen, comedian Lenny Henry, Prince, Eric Clapton, Procol Harum’s Gary Brooker, Trevor Whittaker and Jeff Beck. The album gave Bush her highest chart position in the US (number 28), although the only song from the album to make the US singles chart was "Rubberband Girl", which made number 88 in January 1994. The same single entered the Top 20 in the UK and Ireland, with “The Red Shoes” sitting at number 2 in the UK Album chart. That same year, the film “The Line, the Cross & the Curve”, written and directed by Bush, and starring Bush and English actress Miranda Richardson, used 6 of the songs on the album.

Her eighth studio album, “Aerial”, was released 12 years later, in November 2005. First single "King of the Mountain" entered the UK Downloads Chart at number 6, and peaked at number 4 on the full chart. “Aerial” debuted on the UK Albums Chart at number 3, selling more than 90,000 copies in its first week, and in the US it debuted at number 48 with over 23,000 copies sold. It achieved 2 nominations at the 2006 BRIT Awards, and within 5 months of its release, had sold over 1.1 million copies worldwide.

In her film based work, 1985 saw Bush contribute a darkly melancholic version of the Ary Barroso song "Brazil" to the soundtrack of the Terry Gilliam film “Brazil”, and 1986 she wrote and recorded "Be Kind To My Mistakes" for the Nicolas Roeg film “Castaway”. In 1988 the song "This Woman's Work" was featured in the John Hughes film “She's Having A Baby” (a year before a very slightly remixed version appeared on Bush's album “The Sensual World”). In 1990 Bush starred in the black comedy film “Les Dogs” (produced by The Comic Strip for BBC television) where she plays the bride Angela at a wedding set in a post-apocalyptic version of Britain. While hers is a silent presence in a wedding dress throughout most of the film, she does have several lines of dialogue in 2 dream sequences. The track “The Man with the Child in His Eyes” is on the soundtrack for the 2007 British romantic comedy film “Starter for Ten”, and Bush provided an original song, "Lyra", for the closing credits of the 2007 film “The Golden Compass” which was nominated for the International Press Academy's Satellite Award for original song in a motion picture).

In work with other artists, Bush has provided vocals on 2 of Peter Gabriel's albums, including the hits "Games Without Frontiers" and "Don't Give Up, as well as "No Self-Control". She sung on the title song of the 1986 Big Country album “The Seer”, the Midge Ure song "Sister and Brother" (from his 1988 album “Answers to Nothing”) Go West's 1987 single "The King Is Dead" and, in 1996, the song "My Computer" from the Prince album “Emancipation”. Her work has been covered many times, including versions by Charlotte Church, The Futureheads (who had a UK Top 10 hit with "Hounds of Love"), Placebo, Pat Benatar, Hayley Westenra, Jane Birkin, Natalie Cole and Ra Ra Riot. Coldplay have said their track "Speed of Sound" was originally an attempt to re-create "Running Up That Hill", and British dance act Utah Saints sampled a line from "Cloudbusting" for their single, "Something Good" (which reached number 4 on the UK singles chart in 1992, and the remix "Something Good 08" reached number 8 on the same chart in February 2008).

In 2002, her songwriting ability was recognised with an Ivor Novello Award for Outstanding Contribution to British Music, and she has also received 3 Grammy Award nominations throughout her career.