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Just 24 hours after announcing their return to the global sound stage, Florence and the Machine release their first single in two years today. Aptly titled “King”, the gritty, grungy-style track serves as a meditation on womanhood, family, femininity and the subverting of expectations. Like Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s “WAP” was to 2020 and Emmy Meli’s “I AM WOMAN” was to 2021, this newest track promises to be the feminist anthem of 2022.
“I am no mother, I am no bride – I am king,” the band’s lead singer Florence Welch repeats throughout the song. As a female artist, Welch continues to grapple with the conflict of how to thrive and continue along the same path that male artists whose stars keep ascending, whose path to success is unimpeded by biology.
“As an artist, I never actually thought about my gender that much,” Welch said. “I just got on with it. I was as good as the men and I just went out there and matched them every time. But now, thinking about being a woman in my 30s and the future… I suddenly feel this tearing of my identity and my desires. That to be a performer, but also to want a family might not be as simple for me as it is for my male counterparts. I had modelled myself almost exclusively on male performers, and for the first time I felt a wall come down between me and my idols as I have to make decisions they did not.”
The new release is accompanied by a haunted-style music video directed by Autumn de Wilde and produced by Eric Stern and Juliet Naylor. The whimsical costumes and red riding hood-esque cape was the work of Kate Mulleavy and Laura Mulleavy of Rodarte.
Watch the music video below.
