Florence Welch returned to social media on Tuesday (Feb. 22) to tease an imminent and rather royal musical comeback.
“Did you miss me….,” she captioned the Instagram post with a black heart emoji. In the portrait shot by famed photographer-turned-director Autumn de Wilde, the mystical singer dons an elaborate headpiece over her mane of fiery hair, along with a black gown and gold jewelry, while the word “KING” is emblazoned across the bottom of the frame in all caps.
Meanwhile, Welch shared an even more mysterious post on TikTok. In the video, the singer’s gold-laden, tattooed hands are seen turning over a playing card to reveal the same portrait next to a pink envelope with an ornate seal, all as the strum of a bass gradually gets louder. “Something’s coming,” she captioned the clip.
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Three hours later, the singer followed up her initial posts with a sneak peek of the visual for the as-yet-untitled song, which she revealed will arrive on Wednesday (Feb. 23). In the clip, a number of seemingly possessed young women in matching blue dresses crawl jerkingly up a long flight of stairs before the camera cuts to Welch, dressed in a red hooded cape, as she lifts her face to the sun.
The arrival of new music would serve as the lead-up to Florence and the Machine‘s first full-length studio effort since 2018’s High as Hope, which featured singles “Sky Full of Song,” “Hunger” and “Patricia.” In the interim, the band contributed the delightfully sinister “Call Me Cruella” to the soundtrack for 2021’s Cruella, the live-action Disney origin story starring Emma Stone as the iconic Dalmatian-loving villain.
Back in 2020, Welch provided the entertainment for the first ever virtual Met Gala celebration, performing a stripped down rendition of Lungs-era hit “You’ve Got the Love” after an introduction from Vogue editor in chief Anna Wintour. (The evening also included a DJ set by the late Virgil Abloh.)
Check out Welch’s enigmatic “KING” teases below.
Something's coming pic.twitter.com/2NtR2c3y2c
— florence welch (@florencemachine) February 22, 2022