Florence Welch, lead singer of Florence + The Machine, revealed on Sunday that she recently underwent a life-saving emergency operation. She shared the news on Instagram while apologizing to fans for canceling some of the shows on the Dance Fever tour. The band had previously indicated that the cancellations were the result of “medical advice”; Welch gave slightly more information in her latest post.
“I’m so sorry that I had to cancel the last couple of shows. My feet are fine, I had to have emergency surgery for reasons I don’t really feel strong enough to go into yet, but it saved my life. And I will be back to close out the Dance Fever tour in Lisbon and Malaga. (Maybe not jumping so much but you can do that for me),” she wrote. “Suffice to say I wish the songs were less accurate in their predictions. But creativity is a way of coping, mythology is a way of making sense. And the dark fairytale of Dance Fever, with all its strange prophecies, will provide me with much needed strength and catharsis right now.”
Welch’s reference to her feet is in regard to an injury from last year, when she had revealed to fans that she was “dancing on a broken foot” at one of the shows. This health issue is apparently a separate and previously undisclosed one, though as she mentioned in her message the Dance Fever album touches on themes that may resonate in the situation. The more literal health-related lyrics seem to largely reference the singer’s mental health, particularly her struggles with alcoholism and eating disorders. It’s anyone’s guess how genuinely predictive those songs might be—it could be as simple as “I said okay, but let’s discuss this at the hospital,” but luckily seems to fall short of “I just kept spinning and I danced myself to death.” Wishing Welch a speedy recovery.
