PARIS: Sitting in a hotel lobby, Florence of this season's pop phenomenon Florence and The Machine suddenly breaks into song, drawing staff and customers close and stopping passers-by in their tracks.

The voice currently making a sensation across Europe is a show-stopper -- powerful, thrilling and on an emotional tight-rope without ever being sappy.

"I was always singing in the house, along to the radio and around school, where I was told off for singing in class," says the 22-year-old musician. "I didn't really see it in terms of like 'I'm really good'. It was just something I felt compelled to do."

On a night of December, 2006 while pretty tipsy, she bumped into a famous DJ in the toilets of a London nightclub and started singing.

Mesmerised, the DJ offered to be her manager on the spot.

Her first album "Lungs," currently on release by Universal Records, sets her out as the next Kate Bush, but with her own special universe of passionate, dark and violent love stories.

"A lot of it is me diving into the dark recesses of my mind," she says.

"I just like to let my imagination take over. Usually it takes me to some dark place," adds the slender redhead.

A former art student, Florence -- who was born Florence Welch with The Machine being her band -- says she draws inspiration from "art, architecture, buildings, the sky, conversations, post-its I find in the streets, books, church music, all kinds of things."

The visual aspect is an important part of her work.

At her concerts, which are always very theatrical, she scatters the stage with flowers and surrounds herself with old bird cages lit by lanterns.

"It's all about creating a landscape, an environment where you can lose yourself. I'm visually greedy, I always want to see new things, to see beautiful stuff and shocking things."

Put together by two star producers -- James Ford (Arctic Monkeys, The Last Shadow Puppets) and Paul Epworth (Bloc Party, Maximo Park) -- her album goes against the current of returning to 80s electronic sounds.

Florence combines the harp, with strings and brass instruments in a style which crosses the genres, combining pop, rock and soul -- in a manner which is all tailored to emphasize her voice.

"As a singer, you have to use your whole body, it's a very physical activity, it exercises every muscle in your body. I did take singing lessons, but I had to find my own way of singing because they wanted me to sing in a very controlled manner."

In Britain, where her debut album went straight to number two in the charts when it was released in the summer, Florence is already a star. Paparazzi are endlessly on the heels of the whimsical "It Girl," women's mags like to analyse her look and love her charisma, and music magazines are predicting a bright future.

She dreams of a career like PJ Harvey or Bjork -- artists "who are constantly creating new exciting stuff," she says.

"I had an idea for this album and I did not quite realise it. If I had realised it, I'd probably stop making music.

"You're always striving for this perfect album and you never create it, but it's that frustration that makes you create more music."