Roberta Flack, the Grammy-award winning singer, has passed away at the age of 88, as confirmed by her publicist. Flack, an iconic American artist, was renowned for her classic hits such as “Killing Me Softly With His Song” and “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face.”
A prominent figure in the music scene of the 1970s, she died on Monday surrounded by her family, according to her publicist Elaine Schock. In 2022, Flack revealed that she was diagnosed with motor neurone disease (MND), which prevented her from singing.
Flack rose to fame in her early 30s when Clint Eastwood selected her song “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” for the soundtrack of his 1971 film “Play Misty For Me.” The song reached the top of the US charts in 1972, earning her a Grammy Award. The following year, she won the prestigious Record of the Year award at the Grammys for “Killing Me Softly,” making her the first artist to achieve this honor twice.
Discovered in the late 1960s by jazz musician Les McCann, Flack was a classically trained pianist who received a full scholarship to Howard University at the age of 15. McCann praised her voice, stating, “Her voice touched, tapped, trapped, and kicked every emotion I’ve ever known.”
Flack was also a significant figure in the social and civil rights movements, maintaining friendships with notable activists like Reverend Jesse Jackson and Angela Davis, whom she visited in prison. Additionally, she performed at the funeral of Jackie Robinson, the first African American Major League Baseball player.
Born Roberta Cleopatra Flack in 1937 to musician parents in Black Mountain, North Carolina, she grew up in Arlington, Virginia. She was married to jazz musician Stephen Novosel from 1966 to 1972.
Throughout the 1970s, Flack produced other hits, including “Feel Like Makin’ Love” and two duets with her close friend Donny Hathaway, “Where Is the Love” and “The Closer I Get to You.” Tragically, their collaboration ended in sorrow when Hathaway died after falling from a hotel room in Manhattan in 1979.
While Flack’s initial wave of success was unmatched, she enjoyed a resurgence in the 1980s with the duet “Tonight, I Celebrate My Love” featuring Peabo Bryson, and in the 1990s with “Set The Night To Music” alongside Maxi Priest.
