Roberta Flack, the Silky-voiced Grammy-winning singer whose sultry ballads topped the charts in the 1970s is Dead.
Her publicist Elaine Schock said in a statement that Flack, died on Monday at the age of 88.
“We are heartbroken that the glorious Roberta Flack passed away this morning February 24, 2025. She died peacefully surrounded by her family. Roberta broke boundaries and records. She was also a proud educator".
Flack revealed in November 2022 that she had been diagnosed with ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, and could no longer sing. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is a progressive illness that impacts nerve cells and causes paralysis and death.
The singer won four Grammys and was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2020. She was the first artist to win two consecutive Record of the Year trophies for 1973’s “First Time I Ever Saw Your Face” and 1974’s “Killing Me Softly with His Song.”
Flack had several No. 1 hits in the 1970s and produced 20 studio albums. Although she wrote some of her own songs and collaborated on others, she considered herself as an interpreter of the music.
Roberta Cleopatra Flack was born on February 10, 1937, in Black Mountain, North Carolina. She was one of four children born into a musical family.
Flack started playing piano when she was nine years old, encouraged by her mother, who was a church organist. She wrote the autobiographical, illustrated children’s book “The Green Piano,” about her first piano, which her father rescued from a junkyard and painted.
The legendary singer finished secondary school at 15 and received a full scholarship to Howard University, where she majored in music. Initially, Flack wanted to be a concert pianist but then studied voice and aspired to be an opera singer.
She gave up her dream of attending graduate school after her father’s death and became a schoolteacher in Washington, D.C.
A perfectionist, Flack taught school during the day and sang in local clubs at night. American jazz musician Les McCann heard her singing at the Mr. Henry club in Washington and helped her sign a contract with Atlantic Records.
As an African American woman growing up in the South, Flack experienced racism and segregation, as well as challenges in the 1970s music industry, which was mostly male-dominated.
Her debut album “First Take” (1969) included the song “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face.” But the ballad didn’t become a No. 1 hit until actor/director Clint Eastwood heard it on the radio and asked her if he could feature it in his 1971 film “Play Misty for Me.”
Flack scored her second No. 1 hit in 1973 with “Killing Me Softly with His Song,” and her third the following year with “Feel Like Making Love.”
She also collaborated with other artists, including Peabo Bryson, author Maya Angelou and Donny Hathaway. Their single “Where is the Love” was a top 10 hit and earned a Grammy for best pop performance by a duo in 1973. The pair also recorded other songs, including “The Closer I Get to You.”
The celebrated singer toured with jazz trumpeter Miles Davis in the 1980s and performed for the late South African President Nelson Mandela in 1999. The same year she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
She worked with the Alvin Ailey Dance Company and performed with the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra.
Flack, who was an inspiration for other artists, produced and arranged her own music and worked on scores for films and television.
In 2006, she established the Roberta Flack School of Music at the Hyde Leadership Charter School in New York to provide music education for children. The Roberta Flack Foundation, which she founded in 2019, also supports music and animal welfare.
Flack married jazz bassist Steve Novosel in 1966. They divorced in 1972. After suffering from a stroke in 2016, she gave up touring two years later.
