Florence & the Machine

‘I heard Jay-Z and Beyoncé were [members of the Illuminati], so I don’t know how I feel about it,’ Florence Welch quips about accusations.

By James Montgomery (@positivnegativ)

By now, you have probably seen Florence and the Machine‘s video for “No Light, No Light,” and perhaps even read a few online comments about the clip, which seem to focus on its rather heavy use of religious iconography and how that is irrefutable proof that frontwoman Florence Welch is either a practitioner of the dark arts or a full-fledged member of (dun dun dunnn!) the Illuminati.

Of course, all of this was news to Welch herself, who laughed off the accusations when she sat down with MTV News last week — even if she did find them oddly flattering.

“That’s ridiculous. Really? So people [think that?]” she asked. “I heard Jay-Z and Beyoncé were [members of the Illuminati], so I don’t know how I feel about it, because I think Jay-Z and Beyoncé are the most incredible artists ever, so in a weird way, it’s slightly complimentary. But also completely ridiculous. I’m definitely not [a member]. It’s just not true.”

So, for the record, Florence Welch: 100 percent not Illuminati. And having cleared that up, we then asked her about the imagery in the “No Light” video, which references everything from voodoo to Roman Catholicism and culminates with Welch plummeting from high atop a New York skyscraper, through a stained-glass window, and into the outstretched arms of altar boys. It is certainly open to interpretation — though, to Welch, it had little to do with the occult or secret societies, and everything to do with her own life.

“When [directors Arni and Kinski] pitched it to me, I loved the idea of stained glass … and this falling thing, to do it on a New York skyline was really important to me, and there’s some weird stuff with my grandmother about New York that’s kind of too dark to go into,” she explained. “The idea of falling from a great height in New York is intense … because my grandmother, she died in New York, and I literally didn’t think about it until we were filming and I was like, ‘This is kind of insane.’ ”

What’s your interpretation of the “No Light, No Light” video? Share your thoughts below!

– MTV

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