Florence + The Machine

Florence + the Machine is the recording name of the English musician Florence Welch and her backing band. Welch first used the name during a teenage collaboration with her younger sister's babysitter, Isabella "Machine" Summers. The pair performed together for a time under the name Florence Robot/Isa Machine before shortening it to Florence and the Machine as it was felt to be too cumbersome.

Florence Welch grew up in Camberwell, south London, the eldest daughter of parents is the daughter of Evelyn Welch, a Harvard-educated Professor of Renaissance Studies at Queen Mary, University of London, and Nick Welch, an advertising executive. Her upbringing was privileged but in her early teens they divorced, and her mum started a new relationship with a neighbour. Florence was still living at home with her family when she released her second album Ceremonials in 2011.

Florence is not the only well-known name in her family. She is the niece of the satirist Craig Brown and granddaughter of former deputy editor of the Daily Telegraph and former Daily Mail parliamentary sketchwriter Colin Welch. Another uncle is the actor John Stockwell, who played Cougar in Top Gun.