Image Credit: Paul Redmond/WireImage.comSomewhere between Gaga’s meat smock and the endless iterations of Kanye-vs.-Taylor, a different kind of star emerged at last night’s VMAs.

Crimson-haired songstress Florence Welch (who is, essentially, Florence and the Machine) stunned an audience fed on frantic dance moves, endemic lip-synching, and ersatz drama—simply by singing the crap out of a genuinely great song.

EW caught up with the 24-year-old Londoner and 2009 EW Year-End Albums topper late last week, while she was still anticipating last night’s performance, and spoke to her about gearing up for the show, getting to know Lady Gaga, and who she was most likely to fan out on backstage.

EW: Hello! We’re big fans here at EW, so it’s nice to finally speak to you. Are the VMAs a thing you’re familiar with, having grown up in England?

FW: Yeah, they do run them here on MTV, for sure.

EW: So you know the show is famous for crazy incidents—Eminem fighting with the sock puppet, the guy from Rage Against the Machine falling off a statue onstage, Prince in his buttless pants…

FW: Oh yes, the buttless pants! The Brits are really my only experience with awards, and the VMAs are such an iconic event. Just yesterday, I was walking around [London's] Soho in a dress that cost me one pound and has a hole in it, and then later I was laying on the living-room floor with my sister and this advert came on for the VMAs, this huge spectacle with explosions and all these massive artists and I was like “Oh my god, I’m doing that? Are you sure?” People in south London laying on their living-room floors aren’t supposed to be the people who do that. It just seems so surreal to me that I was laying there watching an advert for a thing I’m actually scheduled to be performing at.

EW: Are you planning to match that level of spectacle?

FW: I think it’s going to be something quite big, not something we’d be able to do at any other event.

EW: So that means you’ve been learning arial acrobatics, like Pink?

FW: Yes, absolutely. While doing jump rope upside down [laughs].

EW: tell me how this year has been for you, it seems like in America at least, it’s been a pretty slow, steady build… READ FULL STORY »