Posted by Katherine St Asaph on 07/22/2012 at 1:09 PM Videos

The Popdust Files: florence and the machine, health

Florence and the Machine and Adele are both part of the British Invasion–well, one of them–of slightly retro and/or outre singer-songwriters; apparently, that invasion comes with casualties. Last year, Adele’s voice suffered several problems, to the point where she had to undergo throat surgery. Florence’s isn’t nearly to that point, but a week or so ago, she said she’d gotten “a vocal injury” and had to go on vocal rest for a week. The timing wasn’t great, as her North American tour kicked off July 20 in Vancouver; some speculated that she’d have to cancel the show.

She didn’t. On July 19 she pulled off a performance on Good Morning America, and the day afterward, the concert went on as planned, in mostly full voice. Here’s how Rolling Stone described it:

In fact, the first few numbers of her performance felt like the equivalent of a freshly-injured Olympic athlete running at about 80% of their speed. After almost 45 minutes worth of music, however, Welch finally shook the trunk of the elephant in the room. “It’s wonderful to be up here, because I lost my voice for a while, and it seems like it’s back,” she beamed, as the audience broke into cheers. “This song [Breaking Down] seems quite fitting because, well, it seemed to suit last week a bit, when I lost my voice. Dark times . . . but it’s all better now!”

Watch the videos below. At least one link proclaims “UNREAL VOICE!”, which seems like as good a sign as any.

(All of the above, incidentally, only applies to Florence Welch. The Machine, presumably, has an awesome voice. If mechanical.)