Womanhood vs. career: Florence + the Machine release new song “King”

Without any prior notice, Florence + the Machine released a new song on Wednesday. “King” is about nothing less than the potential career cuts that women in the pop industry have to accept if they want to start a family. According to singer Florence Welch, men don’t usually have to do that.

Watch the official music video for King, directed by Autumn de Wilde, below:

“King” begins with the lines:

“We argue in the kitchen about whether to have children
About the world ending and the scale of my ambition
And how much is art really worth
The very thing you’re best at
Is the thing that hurts the most

(…)

I am no mother, I am no bride, I am King”

Florence Welch explains: As an artist, she never gave much thought to her gender. “I was just as good at what I did as all the men, went out and took them on,” she says. But now, as a woman in her 30s, contemplating her future, she suddenly feels a rift running through her identity and her desires. She wants to be a performer – but at the same time wanting a family seems more difficult to her as a woman than it is for male artists. You have always seen yourself in a row with male performers. For the first time, however, she felt a wall building up between herself and her idols. “I have to make decisions that they never had to make,” Welch said.

Florence + the Machine have not yet announced a new album, but live performances have: On June 10th, for example, they will be headlining the new “Tempelhof Sounds” festival in Berlin.

The current album by Florence Welch and her band HIGH AS HOPE was released in 2018.