The song itself has often been misinterpreted . Bush herself has said , I was trying to say that , really , a man and a woman ca n't understand each other because we are a man and a woman . And if we could actually swap each other 's roles , if we could actually be in each other 's place for a while , I think we 'd both be very surprised ! Laughs And I think it would lead to a greater understanding . And really the only way I could think it could be done was either ... you know , I thought a deal with the devil , you know . And I thought , ' well , no , why not a deal with God ! ' You know , because in a way it 's so much more powerful the whole idea of asking God to make a deal with you . You see , for me it is still called " Deal With God " , that was its title . But we were told that if we kept this title that it would not be played in any of the religious countries , Italy would n't play it , France would n't play it , and Australia would n't play it ! Ireland would n't play it , and that generally we might get it blacked purely because it had God in the title . The music video featured Bush performing an interpretive dance with dancer Michael Hervieu . The video was directed by David Garfath while the dance routines were choreographed by Diane Grey . Bush and Hervieu are shown wearing grey Japanese hakamas . Bush wanted the dancing in " Running Up That Hill " to be more of a classical performance . She stated that dance in music videos was " being used quite trivially , it was being exploited : haphazard images , busy , lots of dances , without really the serious expression , and wonderful expression , that dance can give . So we felt how interesting it would be to make a very simple routine between two people , almost classic , and very simply filmed . So that 's what we tried , really , to do a serious piece of dance . " The choreography draws upon contemporary dance with a repeated gesture suggestive of drawing a bow and arrow ( the gesture was made literal on the cover for the single in which Bush poses with a real bow and arrow ) , intercut with surreal sequences of Bush and Hervieu searching through crowds of masked strangers . At the climax of the song , Bush 's partner withdraws from her and the two are then swept away from each other and down a long hall in opposite directions by an endless stream of anonymous figures wearing masks made from pictures of Bush and Hervieu 's faces . MTV chose not to show this video ( at the time of its original release ) and instead used a live performance of the song recorded at a promotional appearance on the BBC TV show '' Wogan '' . According to Paddy Bush , " MTV were n't particularly interested in broadcasting videos that did n't have synchronized lip movements in them . They liked the idea of people singing songs . " On 12 August 2012 , Bush released a new version of the song " Running Up That Hill ( A Deal With God ) " . Subtitled ' 2012 Remix ' , it uses the backing track of the extended version on the 1985 12-inch single , over which new lead vocals were recorded . The track was transposed down a semitone to fit Bush 's current lower vocal range . The new version was premiered during the 2012 Summer Olympics closing ceremony . Bush did not appear herself , but the recording was featured in a section of the closing ceremony , after the entry of athletes and prior to the presentation of the medals for the Marathon . The track set the theme to a dance performance , where a ' hill ' or pyramid was gradually assembled by the dancers from giant white blocks , representing each of the Olympic events . The performance was not shown in the United States NBC coverage due to time constraints and tape delay issues
2012 Summer Olympics closing ceremony
2012 Summer Olympics closing ceremony
Running Up That Hill