Legendary R&B singer, Roberta Flack, died on Monday at age 88, AP News reported.
The Grammy-winning singer and classically trained pianist was launched into stardom in the early ‘70s by hits like “Killing Me Softly With His Song,” and “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face.”
“We are heartbroken that the glorious Roberta Flack passed away this morning, February 24, 2025,” a statement from her publicist Elaine Schock read. “She died peacefully surrounded by her family. Roberta broke boundaries and records. She was also a proud educator.”
The singer announced in 2022 that she had ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, and could no longer sing as a result.
She was born to a musical family in Black Mountain, North Carolina and was inspired as a young girl by the gospel work of Mahalia Jackson and Sam Cooke.
She began studying piano at nine-years-old and became somewhat of a musical prodigy, gaining a full scholarship to Howard University in Washington, D.C., at age 15.
Clint Eastwood can be credited with Flack’s rise to fame in her early 30s when the film director used “The First Time I Ever Saw Your Face,” as a soundtrack in an explicit love scene in his 1971 film Play Misty for Me.
The song was already two-years-old when Eastwood adopted it. The ballad-like song that featured Flack’s soprano with soft strings and piano, topped the Billboard pop chart in 1972 and received a Grammy for Record of the Year.
The very next year, with “Killing Me Softly,” Flack became the first artist to win consecutive Grammys for Record of the Year. This achievement would only be succeeded in 2001-02 by Irish rock band U2, Variety reported.
Flack was also discovered in the late 1960s by jazz musician Les McCann who would later write Flack’s “voice touched, tapped, trapped, and kicked every emotion I’ve ever known.” She became known for her versatility, often performing a slightly more measured up-tempo gospel-like quality than Aretha Franklin did in her music.
Flack’s slow burning style earned her six top-10 pop hits and 10 top-10 R&B singles. In total, Flack was nominated 13 times and received her last Grammy in 1995 for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Performance with her album “Roberta.”
She is survived by her son, musician, Bernard Wright.
