Songfacts®:

• "King" is a reflection on family, identity, femininity and the subverting of expectations as a female performing artist. We hear Florence + The Machine lead singer Florence Welch ruminating on the dissonance between womanhood and her career in the music industry.
  
  I need my golden crown of sorrow, my bloody sword to swing
  My empty halls to echo with grand self-mythology
  I am no mother, I am no bride, I am King
  
  Penned by Welch in her mid-30s, the song finds the singer aware her fertile years will soon be over. She doesn't regret setting aside the expectation to get married and start a family because her music career has prospered. Welch has found fulfillment as a tortured artist where she reigns as a sovereign.
• Welch had previously modeled herself almost exclusively on male performers. "As an artist, I never actually thought about my gender that much. I just got on with it," she said. "I was as good as the men and I just went out there and matched them every time."
  
  This song was triggered by Welch realizing she faces a different set of challenges than her male musical heroes. She sings about finding her inspiration from her artistic endeavors, yet fears missing out on a happy, domestic life. "Now, thinking about being a woman in my 30s and the future, I suddenly feel this tearing of my identity and my desires," Welch said. "That to be a performer, but also to want a family, might not be as simple for me as it is for my male counterparts."
• Florence Welch co-wrote and co-produced the haunting song with Jack Antonoff. The American songwriter is a regular Taylor Swift collaborator and also known for his work with Lorde and Lana Del Rey.
• American photographer and video director Autumn De Wilde directed the video with choreography by Ryan Heffington. Shot partially in Ukraine, it depicts Welch snapping the neck of a king played by English actor Jack Riddiford. Courtiers, billed as "Lace Monsters," flank her.
  
  De Wilde previously shot Florence + the Machine's "Big God" visual. Heffingron also worked on their "What Kind Of Man," "Ship To Wreck," "St. Jude," and "Queen of Peace"/"Long & Lost" clips.
• Florence + the Machine played the song live for the first time during their April 15, 2022 show at Newcastle's O2 City Hall. The group also gave the Dance Fever tracks "Heaven Is Here," "My Love," "Free," and "Girls Against God" their debut outings at what was their first show since October 2019.
• "King" won Best Song Musically and Lyrically at the 2023 Ivor Novello Awards.
• The song finds Welch in a conversation with herself about if she should have children or devote herself fully to her career. These lines are telling:
  
  And what strange claws are these scratching at my skin?
  I never knew my killer would be coming from within
  
  The song was released in 2022, and in 2023 she decided to get pregnant, which she did on the first try (with her boyfriend, a musician whose identity she keeps secret). It didn't go well: Florence had a miscarriage and also an ectopic pregnancy, which cause internal bleeding when she was on stage at the Boardmasters Festival in Cornwall, England on August 13, 2025. Not long after, she learned that her fallopian tube had ruptured, and she had emergency surgery. She revealed all this in a 2025 interview with The Guardian, where she said, "Having that line in 'King' was a strange thing because I had an ectopic pregnancy, on stage."