Florence Welch

• 1. A Name Born in a Panic

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  Florence Welch, the English singer and songwriter, chose the name of her band while the clock was running out. About an hour before her first gig, she still had no name to announce. Her best idea was Florence Robot Is A Machine, which she dropped because it was so long it would drive her mad. What survived was shorter, and Welch has said it "started off as a private joke that got out of hand." The joke became Florence and the Machine, with Welch as lead vocalist and primary songwriter. She also works as a dancer and a poet. Where did that voice come from? Why do her songs keep circling love, death and religion? And what has a life on stage cost her?

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• 2. A Camberwell Childhood

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  Florence Leontine Mary Welch was born on the 28th of August 1986 in Camberwell, London. Her father, Nick Russell Welch, worked in advertising, and her mother, Evelyn, was an academic. Through her mother, Welch holds both British and American citizenship. The wider family reads like a cast list. Her maternal grandfather was the lawyer and coal magnate John S. Samuels III, and her uncle is the actor and filmmaker John Stockwell. Her aunt Frances Welch is married to the satirist Craig Brown, and her paternal grandfather, Colin Welch, was deputy editor of The Daily Telegraph.

  At ten, Welch stood up at Colin Welch's memorial service and sang Yum-Yum's song from The Mikado by Gilbert and Sullivan, the one that begins "The sun whose rays are all ablaze." Singing at family weddings and funerals was nothing new for her. Her Scottish paternal grandmother, Cybil, urged her to pursue performing. Both of her late grandmothers would later inspire numerous songs on Lungs.

  Her parents divorced when she was 13, and her mother eventually married their next-door neighbour, Peter Openshaw. That marriage gave Welch three step-siblings, Maddie, Sam and John. Through her father she has a stepbrother named Nick, and she also has a younger brother, J.J. When Welch was 14, her maternal grandmother, who had bipolar disorder, died by suicide. She jumped from her New York apartment.

  Welch first attended Thomas's London Day School in Battersea and then Alleyn's School in South East London, where she did well academically. She still kept getting into trouble for impromptu singing and for singing too loudly in the school choir. She has described herself as a highly imaginative and fearful child. In middle school she and two friends started a "witch's coven" and made spellbooks. They even tried to cast spells on classmates. She loved reading, yet she was diagnosed with dyslexia because of her spelling. She also had dyspraxia, a developmental coordination disorder that caused problems with organisation. Music and books gave her a reprieve from feeling different. After secondary school she worked for a while in a pub, then studied illustration at Camberwell College of Arts. She dropped out to focus on her music. Her younger sister, Grace, would one day have a song named after her.

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• 3. From Robot to Lungs

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  In 2006, Welch and her friend Isabella Summers began drawing notice in small London venues under the joint name Florence Robot & Isa Machine. Welch later tied that pairing to her sound. She said she liked "what a machine thinks organic instruments really sound like."

  In 2007 she recorded with a band called Ashok, whose album Plans came out on the Filthy Lucre/About Records label. The record held the earliest version of her later hit "Kiss with a Fist." At that point the song was titled "Happy Slap."

  Florence and the Machine released their debut studio album, Lungs, in the United Kingdom on the 6th of July 2009. A set at the Rivoli Ballroom in Brockley, south-east London, launched it officially. The album peaked at number one in the UK and number two in Ireland. By the 6th of August 2009 it had sold over 100,000 copies in Britain. By the 10th of August it had held number two for five consecutive weeks. Lungs went on to win the Brit Award for Best British Album.

  In the United States, the album reached download stores on the 25th of July 2009. It debuted at number seventeen on the Billboard Heatseekers Albums chart and ultimately climbed to number one there. A physical release followed on the 20th of October through Universal Republic. Four producers shaped the record: James Ford, Paul Epworth, Steve Mackey and Charlie Hugall.

  In 2010, Welch lent her voice to Here Lies Love, an album by David Byrne and Fatboy Slim about Imelda Marcos. By January 2011 she was working with Drake on material slated for his upcoming album.

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• 4. Ceremonials and Collaborations

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  On the 27th of February 2011, Welch replaced the pregnant Dido at the 83rd Academy Awards. She sang Dido's portion of "If I Rise," a Best Original Song nominee from the film 127 Hours, alongside A. R. Rahman.

  Ceremonials arrived on the 31st of October 2011. Its repeated water imagery reflects what has been called her "obsession with drowning." The album debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart and number six on the US Billboard 200. In December 2011, Welch led a tribute to Amy Winehouse at the VH1 Divas Celebrates Soul concert. She sang Winehouse's "Back to Black" and the Annie Lennox classic "Walking on Broken Glass."

  On the 12th of January 2012, the band received two Brit Award nominations. The ceremony took place at the O2 Arena in London on the 21st of February 2012. On the 26th of April 2012, they released "Breath of Life," recorded as the official theme song for the fantasy film Snow White and the Huntsman. Then, on the 5th of July 2012, a remix of "Spectrum" by Scottish musician Calvin Harris came out as the fourth single from Ceremonials. It became the band's first UK number-one hit.

  In October 2012, Welch featured on Harris's song "Sweet Nothing," which debuted at number one on the UK Singles Chart. It was her second number one. The song came from Harris's third album, 18 Months, and was that album's fifth single. It also topped the chart in Ireland and reached number two in Australia and New Zealand. It went Platinum in Australia and earned a nomination for Best Dance Recording at the 56th Annual Grammy Awards. On the 29th of November 2012, Welch joined the Rolling Stones at the O2 Arena to sing "Gimme Shelter" with Mick Jagger. Her performance was described as "sexy" and "electrifying."

  In February 2015, the band announced their third album, How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful. It was released on the 1st of June 2015 and reached number one in many markets, including the US, the UK, Australia and Canada. It produced two UK top 40 hits and earned three Grammy nominations. That June, Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters broke his leg on stage before his band's Glastonbury Festival headline slot. Florence and the Machine stepped in as headliners. They played the top slot for the first time on the 26th of June 2015.

  In September 2016, Lady Gaga told Heat Radio that she and Welch had recorded a song together. The track, "Hey Girl," appeared on Gaga's fifth album, Joanne. Footage of their studio session featured in the Netflix documentary Gaga: Five Foot Two in 2017. In March 2017, Welch appeared in Song to Song, directed by Terrence Malick. In May 2017, she co-wrote "To Be Human" with Rick Nowels for the Wonder Woman soundtrack. Sia and Labrinth perform it on the film's soundtrack.

  On the 12th of April 2018, the band released "Sky Full of Song" with a video directed by AG Rojas. A limited edition 7" vinyl followed for Record Store Day on the 21st of April, a day meant to support brick and mortar record stores. On the 22nd of May 2018, Welch sang "Wild Horses" as a duet with Mick Jagger at London Stadium during the Rolling Stones' No Filter Tour. The fourth studio album, High as Hope, arrived on the 29th of June 2018. In July 2018, Welch published her first book, Useless Magic: Lyrics and Poetry. It pairs her lyrics and poems with artwork from the time of Lungs through High as Hope.

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• 5. Gatsby and Dance Fever

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  On the 28th of April 2021, Welch announced that she would write music and lyrics for a stage adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. Producer Thomas Bartlett co-wrote the music, Martyna Majok wrote the book, and Rebecca Frecknall was named as director. The musical, titled Gatsby: An American Myth, premiered on the 5th of June 2024 at the American Repertory Theater. Tony Award-winning director Rachel Chavkin directed that production.

  In January 2022, news that the band would headline several summer festivals set fans guessing that a fifth album was near. By the end of February, selected fans were receiving medieval-styled tarot cards. The cards bore the word "King" and the words "Florence + the Machine" followed by "Chapter 1." On the 23rd of February 2022, Welch released the single "King" with a video directed by Autumn de Wilde. "Heaven Is Here" followed on the 7th of March, again with a de Wilde video.

  On the 9th of March 2022, Welch announced through her Instagram page that the fifth album would be called Dance Fever and would hold 14 songs. She called it "A fairytale in 14 songs." The next day, "My Love" arrived with another de Wilde video. It premiered on the BBC Radio 1 morning show "Breakfast with Greg James," where Welch revealed the album's release date of the 13th of May 2022. A live album, Dance Fever (Live at Madison Square Garden), followed on the 14th of October 2022. It was recorded over two nights at the venue, the 16th and the 17th of September 2022.

  In August 2024, Welch sang "Florida!!!" with Taylor Swift at the last London stop of The Eras Tour. She sang it with Swift again in October 2024 at the tour's Miami stops. On the 11th of September 2024, Florence + the Machine performed with the Jules Buckley Orchestra at Royal Albert Hall for the BBC Proms 2024 series. The performance was released as the album Symphony of Lungs on the 25th of October 2024.

  In 2025, Welch teamed up with the music project Everything Is Recorded, headed by Richard Russell, on the track "Never Felt Better." The singer Sampha also features on it. On the 19th of August 2025, she announced her sixth album, Everybody Scream, which was released on the 31st of October 2025.

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• 6. Influences and Image

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  In 2023, Rolling Stone placed Welch at number 128 on its list of the 200 Greatest Singers of All Time. She sings as a contralto. Critics have set her beside Kate Bush, Stevie Nicks, Siouxsie Sioux, PJ Harvey, Shirley Manson, Alison Goldfrapp, Tori Amos and Björk.

  Welch herself names Grace Slick, Alanis Morissette, Patti Smith and Stevie Nicks as influences and heroes. She told Rolling Stone in 2010, "I'm pretty obsessed with Stevie Nicks, from her style to her voice." On High as Hope she wrote "Patricia" about Smith, whom she calls her "north star." Her early influences also include John Cale, Otis Redding, Courtney Love, David Byrne and Lou Reed.

  Her parents pulled her in different directions. Nick Welch, a self-confessed "frustrated performer," lived in a West End squat in his twenties. He attended the Squatters' Ball organised by Heathcote Williams, where the 101ers played regularly. If he ever nudged his daughter, he said, it was only to listen to the Ramones rather than Green Day. Her mother, Evelyn, left a different mark. A visit to one of her mother's Renaissance lectures deeply impressed teenage Florence. She said she hoped her own music would carry big themes, sex, death, love and violence, that will still matter in 200 years.

  Jody Rosen of Rolling Stone called the style of Ceremonials "dark, robust and romantic." He heard in the ballad "Only If for a Night" a mix of "classic soul and midnight-on-the-moors English art rock." Welch says her lyrics wrestle with the same matters as Renaissance artists: love and death, time and pain, heaven and hell. Religious imagery runs through her music, though she says, "I'm not a religious person." She was raised Catholic and recalls that the first songs she liked were hymns. Today she calls herself an agnostic.

  Vogue has called Welch "the queen of Bohemian style." She often performs barefoot and without jewellery, in light Gucci dresses. In 2011, Gucci dressed her for her summer tour and for a performance at the Chanel runway show at Paris Fashion Week. She describes her stage look as "The Lady of Shalott meets Ophelia... mixed with scary gothic bat lady." Then she adds, "But in real life I'm kind of prim." The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood is a strong nod in both her fashion and her music. She names the 1970s American drag queen troupe the Cockettes and the French chanson singer Françoise Hardy as fashion mentors. At concerts she sometimes pays homage to Nicks' famous billowing stage dress.

  As a child, Welch has said, she was a "fantasist" who read constantly. She would remind herself that she was not a mermaid, could not breathe underwater and could not fly. She remembers wanting to magically change her appearance, and she says this shaped her image and sound. Fans and the media have compared her to a witch, a mermaid and a fairy.

  In 2022, Welch accepted an honorary fellowship from University of the Arts London. She lives in Kennington, South London, in the London Borough of Lambeth. She considers herself an introvert, and she has held many events with her fan-run book club, Between Two Books.

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• 7. Sobriety and Survival

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  Welch has been sober since 2014, and she has been open about the anxiety, depression and drinking that many of her songs reflect. In a 2024 interview with John Seabrook, she described being conscious and present, even through the pain, as "much more a truly reborn spirit of rock and roll."

  She has said she used to drink before every performance. She told Billboard that she is quite shy, and that this was probably why she drank a lot. In 2015, she broke her foot leaping off the stage at the Coachella Festival. She had taken time off to make a new record and had built up strength she did not want to lose. She thought she could dive back in, but she said she "literally broke myself."

  In a 2019 interview with Sinéad Burke, Welch described her panic attacks. She said her hands and lips go tingly, and that she thinks it is very serious and she is about to die. She knows it is a panic attack, she said, yet part of her still wants someone to take her to hospital.

  In her 2018 song "Hunger," Welch spoke for the first time about an eating disorder she had as a teenager. She has also been open about anorexia nervosa. In a 2022 interview with The Independent, she said she considered herself recovered. Even so, "anorexic thinking" still formed a part of her everyday life.

  On the 28th of August 2023, Welch posted a statement on her personal Instagram account. It apologised for the cancellation of the band's performances in Zurich and Paris on the 25th and the 26th of August. She wrote, "My feet are fine, I had to have emergency surgery for reasons I don't really feel strong enough to go into yet, but it saved my life." In 2025, she revealed that she had suffered a miscarriage. The pregnancy was ectopic, and the fallopian tube had ruptured. The rupture caused massive internal haemorrhage that required emergency surgery.

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• 8. Causes on Stage

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  In 2016, Welch voiced her support for Remain during the United Kingdom's EU membership referendum. She is also a vocal advocate for LGBTQ+ rights. At concerts she regularly waves the rainbow flag, particularly during her song "Spectrum (Say My Name)."

  In 2018, she tweeted her support for removing the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland. The removal passed and legalised abortion access within the country. During her 2019 North American tour, she spoke up for women's rights at concerts in Las Vegas, Chicago, Raleigh and Columbia, Maryland. She asked her audience to donate to the ACLU instead of buying concert merchandise.

  In March 2022, Welch expressed her support for Ukraine during the Russo-Ukrainian War. The video for "Heaven Is Here" had been filmed in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine. On Twitter she wrote, "Two of the dancers in this video are currently sheltering. To my brave and beautiful sisters Maryne and Anastasiia. I love you. I wish I could put my arms around you. Strength." She also shared an article about ways to help Ukraine. In September 2022, it was announced that proceeds from a Florence and the Machine zine would go to the charitable foundation Future for Ukraine. The zine features photographs taken in November 2021 in Kyiv, while the band shot music videos for Dance Fever.

  During the 2026 North American leg of the Everybody Scream tour, the band donated a portion of ticket sales to Doctors Without Borders for its humanitarian work. The tour also partnered with Planned Parenthood. Reproductive healthcare resources were on offer to concertgoers at tables staffed by Planned Parenthood affiliates.

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