Florence Honoured

Singer scoops Critics Choice Brit award

12 December 2008 - Florence and the Machine will get the coveted Critics’ Choice Award at next year’s Brit Awards, it’s been revealed.

The award honours acts that are tipped to make it big in the next year, and picks an artist set to release their debut album in 2009. This year’s winner Adele went on to sell 1.2 million copies of debut album 19.

Second place was Little Boots and West London group White Lies were third. All three have also been chosen by critics for the BBC’s Sound of 2009 longlist of 15 acts, from which a final 10 – and a winner – will be chosen in January.

Like the Sound Of poll, the shortlist and winner of the Critics Choice is decided by a panel of music journalists and industry figures.

South Londoner Florence Welch has been getting a lot of recognition from critics since the release of debut single Kiss With A First this summer. Recently she spoke to 6 Music and said she’d come from quite humble musical beginnings:
“I started off singing acapella and stamping my feet and clapping my hands. It went from there to having a guitar, and then me banging on with a piano in a little studio, and then deciding I wanted two pianos, three drummers, a harp player and some bongos.”
 
She’ll perform at the awards’ launch next month and collect the award at the main event in February.

Florence said she was delighted to receive the award:
"Blimey, a BRIT Award. Wow the world's gone weird. Thank you so much to the critics. I'm making my album at the moment. It's sort of sounding like a choir, a harp, some metal chains and a piano all put through a car crusher, then hit with wooden planks really hard.”

When asked about her own predictions for next year, Florence told 6 Music her money’s on The Big Pink, Gold and Silvers, Esser, The Mae Shi, Cocknbull kid and Little Boots.

Rodrigo Davies