The Story
Florence + the Machine took shape in London in 2007 around singer and songwriter Florence Welch and keyboardist Isabella Summers, whose early studio experiments as "Florence Robot / Isa Machine" gave the band its name. Welch's voice — enormous, raw, and theatrical — quickly set the project apart from the indie pack, and a run of early singles made them one of the most talked-about new British acts of the late 2000s.
Their 2009 debut, Lungs, climbed to number one in the UK and won the Brit Award for best British album, powered by songs like "Dog Days Are Over" and their cover of "You've Got the Love." The follow-up, Ceremonials (2011), went bigger and darker — chamber-pop arrangements, harps, and choirs behind hymns like "Shake It Out" and "Never Let Me Go" — and cemented the band as festival headliners, including a top-billing slot at Glastonbury in 2015.
Later albums traced Welch's own arc: How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful (2015) stripped things back after a period of burnout, High as Hope (2018) turned confessional, and Dance Fever (2022) — another UK number one — wrestled with performance, folklore, and the pull of the stage. In 2025 the band released their sixth album, Everybody Scream, written in the wake of a life-threatening health emergency Welch suffered while touring, and greeted with wide critical acclaim.
Nearly two decades in, Florence + the Machine remain one of the biggest live draws in British music, spending summer 2026 headlining festivals across Europe — from Milan's I-Days to Mad Cool in Madrid and NOS Alive in Lisbon.
