Florence Welch

Florence Welch shares her musical milestones with Matt Everitt in a programme first broadcast in 2015

As the voice of and songwriter behind Florence & the Machine, she emerged from the grimy East London indie scene to become a full-blown international superstar with the release of her debut album Lungs in 2009 and its follow-up Ceremonials in 2011.

She remembers a fascination for the music of Disney's The Little Mermaid and how singing in church helped shape her musical tastes. She explains how fantasy and religious imagery inspired her creativity, as well as her obsessions with Eminem, Green Day, Nick Cave and the Corrs. She recalls the first Florence & the Machine appearance at Glastonbury ("I woke up in someone else's clothes"), how she dealt with three years of non-stop touring and the huge success that followed ("It's almost like I couldn't process it while it was happening") and the pressures and expectations that surrounded the recording of her third album How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful.