Synopsis

Kate Bush portrays a woman suspicious of her husband's fidelity who adopts the identity of Babooshka, a younger and more alluring version of herself. In the video's stark black setting, she performs beside a towering double bass that represents the husband and the weight of their relationship. As the song develops, the veiled wife gives way to a flamboyant, armored alter ego, complete with metallic costume, headdress, and sword. The transformation turns the emotional test into a theatrical confrontation between restraint, desire, and jealousy.

Factoids & Trivia

• "Babooshka" was released as the second single from Bush's 1980 album *Never for Ever*. It reached No. 5 in the United Kingdom and became an even bigger hit in Australia, where it peaked at No. 2.

• The song's storyline was inspired in part by the English folk song "Sovay," in which a woman disguises herself to test her lover's devotion.

• The double bass is more than a striking prop: it functions as a visual stand-in for the absent husband. Bush's physical interaction with the instrument gives the verses a choreographed sense of possession and dependence.

• Bush appears in two sharply contrasting forms. The first is the restrained, black-clad wife hidden behind a veil; the second is the exposed and confrontational Babooshka, presented in a fantastical costume with Russian-inspired details.

• The video's fractured visual effect coincides with the smashed-glass sound at the end of the recording. The sound was created as an early Fairlight CMI sample, made by breaking glasses and processing the recording electronically.

• The costume and imagery helped make the clip one of the defining visual statements of Bush's early career. In 1981, it won Best International Production at the first Musical Video Clip Awards held during MIDEM.