Florence and Machine meets Paris Paloma: A match made in heaven
Occasionally, two artists so perfect for one another come together for the ultimate double act of a line-up. That rare golden moment has happened as Florence and the Machine announced a major tour, with Paris Paloma on support.
Florence Welch is one of those artists whose impact seems utterly unending. It’s not that she’s the start of some new lineage, as it’s easy to track her own brand of powerful vocals, witchy aesthetics and delicate poetry back. She’s a descendant of Stevie Nicks, obviously, but Janis Joplin too, and a student of Patti Smith, whom she openly reveres in her song ‘Patricia’.
Welch is undeniably shaped by artists who came before her, but in 2009, when she emerged with Lungs, it was the start of a new branch. At the time, indie was overrun with men. Even if there were women in the mix, like Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, there was a demand for women to play the men’s game; to be rough and rowdy like them. When Florence and the Machine arrived with their fascination with folklore and Welch’s lace dresses, that game was over.
It’s difficult not to spiral too far here. I could sit and write that the impact of Welch led to so many random things like Alexa Chung hitting up Glastonbury in a silk nightgown, the entirety of Tumblr moving from soft grunge to looking like folklore illustrations of nymphs, fairies and sirens, or the launch of what would eventually become cottage-core. But to keep it close to music, the impact of Florence and the Machine’s breakout not only influenced a whole new brand of indie, but also resulted in one that was led by women.
Since then, her followers were easy to spot, but by now, they’re leading the way. When The Last Dinner Party won BBC’s ‘Sound Of 2024’, the band sobbed less because they’d won, and more because their idol, Florence Welch, was breaking the news to them. The acknowledgement from one of their biggest influences was likely the pinch-me moment, and no doubt Paris Paloma is feeling that intensely as her name is right there on Welch’s new tour poster.
But the dreamy match between Welch and Paloma goes deeper than that. “I am no mother, I am no bride, I am king,” Welch sang in 2022. Two years later, Paloma released ‘Labour’, a song that would build and build into now being one of the most important protest songs of our times as she sings, “All day, every day, therapist, mother, maid / Nymph, then a virgin, nurse, then a servant / Just an appendage, live to attend him / So that he never lifts a finger.”
The perfection of the two artists coming together goes so much deeper than pretty dresses. With so many of the modern acts that Welch has inspired, it runs core-deep and undeniably runs into politics. So much of Welch’s work digs its fingers into womanhood, gender roles, addiction, social limitations, and as those songs travelled down to the new songwriters of today, the language they’ve been granted to unpack those topics, too, is endlessly more nuanced and beautiful, even in the ugliness of the topic.
Paloma’s debut album, Cacophony, is the clearest example of that to date. Sung with a gorgeous, angelic voice and packed with lush imagery, it is still gritty and dark as she delves deep into misogyny and injustice. On the big stages Welch is now granting her, it will be goose-bump inducing, just as much as the main act’s own messages.
More so than Welch cleverly booking a new artist who is clearly inspired by her own work, the booking of Paloma as her support act is a nod to a lineage of artists not only sonically and stylistically influenced by her, by a legion of young women raised with a stronger language for strong messages thanks to her.
