Florence + the Machine

The same thing is always said about Florence + the Machine: that she makes cathartic music. It is true and it stops halfway, because the catharsis has a concrete content and she has told it in the first person. Florence Welch stopped eating at seventeen, lived with anorexia for almost two decades and stopped drinking around 2014. The huge drums, the church choirs and that voice which goes from a whisper to an explosion in two bars are written on top of that. It is not decorative intensity: it is intensity with a cause. And the band is not the solo project it is usually described as either: it formed in London in 2007 and "the Machine" has a first and last name. Since then it has put five albums at number one in Britain, the last of them in 2025, in a career that shares its era with Amy Winehouse and Adele and is nothing like either of them.

London, 2007, and the half that gives the name

The official spelling carries a plus sign, not a conjunction: Florence + the Machine. And "the Machine" is not a decoration on the poster. It comes from Isabella Summers, keyboard player, producer and friend of Welch since adolescence, when the two of them nicknamed themselves "Isabella Machine" and "Florence Robot". The band's name is the sum of those two games.

The group formed in London in 2007. Lungs, the debut, came out in 2009 and was not an immediate number one: it entered at number two on the British albums chart and only reached the top on 17 January 2010, six months later. That slow climb says more about their audience than a debut at the very top would.

The awards came thanks to that record, although not the ones usually attributed to it. Lungs was nominated for the 2009 Mercury and lost it: Speech Debelle won. What it did win was the BRITs' Critics' Choice in 2009 and, in 2010, the BRIT for British Album of the Year.

At seventeen

"Hunger", one of the songs on High as Hope, opens by naming the exact age at which Welch stopped feeding herself: seventeen. It is not a metaphor or a poetic licence; it is the fact she chose to open the track with. She has explained it since in interviews without softening it. She told Rolling Stone UK: "Anorexic thinking is still part of my life, even though the anorexia itself isn't."

The other half is alcohol. Welch stopped drinking around 2014 and has described the mechanism with a sentence that leaves no room for ornament: "I learned ways to manage that terror — drink, drugs, controlling food." She told British Vogue that during lockdown she came the closest she has ever been to relapsing with food.

Seen with all of that on top, her music changes meaning. The choirs are not grandiloquence and the concerts where she runs barefoot and gets in among the audience are not choreography: they are the way she found of getting all of that out somewhere. The difference between a dramatic artist and an artist who needs the drama lies in that detail.

Five number ones in the United Kingdom and one in the United States

The figures are best given with the country attached, because "worldwide number one" would be false. Ceremonials, from 2011, was number one in the United Kingdom and six in the United States. How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful, from 2015, was number one in both countries: it is still her only American number one. High as Hope, from 2018, came second in both, blocked by Scorpion. Dance Fever, from 2022, went back to the top in Britain and was second in the United States.

With singles the story is different. "Dog Days Are Over", the song through which half the world got to know her, was not a chart success: the original 2008 edition did not enter the British chart and the 2010 reissue barely showed up. It was a phenomenon of audiences and television, not of sales. Her highest-charting singles are others: "You Got the Dirtee Love", a duet with Dizzee Rascal, reached number two; "You've Got the Love", number five; "Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)", number twelve. Of Grammys there are none, with nominations in 2011, 2012 and 2016. She has also lent her voice to other people's records: she sang a duet with Lady Gaga on "Hey Girl", from Joanne, in 2016.

What came after the surgery

In August 2023 she cancelled dates on the Dance Fever Tour with a short message: "I had to have emergency surgery for reasons I don't really feel strong enough to go into yet, but it saved my life." She gave no further details then and has given none since.

Out of that came Everybody Scream, released on 31 October 2025, a record she describes as made "during and out of a time of healing and of discovering the limits of the body". It was number one in the United Kingdom — the fifth of her career — and number four in the United States, gathered 81 out of 100 on Metacritic, took five stars in the NME and was nominated for the 2026 Mercury. Sixteen years after Lungs, it is her best-received album with the critics.

What to remember

Florence + the Machine is not a band of big emotion without a reason. It is a band of big emotion with a cause its singer decided to name: anorexia from the age of seventeen, alcohol until 2014, and then twenty years of records built with that in plain sight. The drums, the choirs, the voice that breaks at the top, the stage where she gives herself until there is nothing left: all of that has an origin, and when it is told, the word catharsis stops being an empty compliment.

What also sets her apart is that she did not stay with the record that made her famous. Five British number ones, one American number one, a Mercury lost in 2009 and another she is nominated for in 2026, and a 2025 album the critics received better than any of the previous ones. If any of this strikes close to home for someone, in Chile guidance on eating disorders is available from Minsal's Salud Responde, 600 360 7777, and SENDA's Fono Drogas y Alcohol, 1412, takes calls about substance use twenty-four hours a day.

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Sources

Florence + the Machine is a British group formed in London in 2007, led by the singer and songwriter Florence Welch. The name "the Machine" comes from the keyboard player and collaborator Isabella Summers, a friend of Welch since adolescence, when they nicknamed themselves "Isabella Machine" and "Florence Robot"; the group's official spelling uses the "+" sign. Their debut album, "Lungs" (2009), debuted at number two on the British albums chart and reached number one on 17 January 2010; it was nominated for the 2009 Mercury Prize, which Speech Debelle won. The group took the Critics' Choice at the BRIT Awards in 2009 and the BRIT for British Album of the Year in 2010. Positions of their albums: "Ceremonials" (2011), number one in the United Kingdom and number six in the United States; "How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful" (2015), number one in both countries, their only American number one; "High as Hope" (2018), number two in the United Kingdom and in the United States; "Dance Fever" (2022), number one in the United Kingdom and number two in the United States; "Everybody Scream" (31 October 2025), number one in the United Kingdom and number four in the United States, with 81 out of 100 on Metacritic, five stars in the NME and a nomination for the 2026 Mercury Prize. "Dog Days Are Over" did not enter the British singles chart on its 2008 release and reached number twenty-three with the 2010 reissue; their highest-charting singles in the United Kingdom are "You Got the Dirtee Love" with Dizzee Rascal (number two), "You've Got the Love" (number five) and "Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)" (number twelve). The group has not won any Grammy, with nominations in 2011, 2012 and 2016. Florence Welch sang a duet with Lady Gaga on "Hey Girl", included on the album "Joanne" (2016). Florence Welch has stated publicly that she suffered from anorexia from the age of seventeen; the song "Hunger", from "High as Hope" (2018), refers explicitly to that age, and she told Rolling Stone UK: "Anorexic thinking is still part of my life, even though the anorexia itself isn't." She stopped drinking alcohol around 2014 and has stated: "I learned ways to manage that terror — drink, drugs, controlling food." She told British Vogue that during lockdown she came close to relapsing into the eating behaviour. In August 2023 she cancelled dates on the Dance Fever Tour because of emergency surgery, about which she stated: "I had to have emergency surgery for reasons I don't really feel strong enough to go into yet, but it saved my life." Profile compiled for Rebobinados with fact-checking; interpretations of the meaning of the work are offered as the author's reading. No song lyrics are reproduced, for copyright reasons. Information drawn from Wikipedia, Official Charts Company, Billboard, Metacritic, NME, Rolling Stone UK, British Vogue and other coverage.