The singer Roberta Flack, whose characteristic voice and moving interpretations of songs such as “Killing Me Softly With Sur Song” catapulted her to the top of the lists and the generations influenced, has died. She was 88 years old.
The legendary singer died on Monday, according to a press release from his representatives provided to ABC News. No cause of death was shared in the statement.
“We are disconsolate that the glorious Roberta Flack died this morning on February 24, 2025,” said the statement. “He died peacefully surrounded by his family. Roberta broke limits and records. She was also a proud educator,” the statement continued.
Roberta Flack acts at Hammersmith Apollo in London on July 18, 2006.
Brian Rasic/Getty Images
Flack was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as ELA, in 2022, which resulted in the loss of their singing voice, their publicists said at that time.
Flack led the lists in the 1970s with successes that include “the first time I saw your face”, “Killing Me Softly with her song”, “Feel Like Makin ‘Love”, “Where is the love” and “The more I do to you. “
The singer was nominated for 14 Grammy Awards, winning five, including an Achievement for Life Award. She was the first artist to win the Grammy Award for the record of the year in consecutive years, for “The First Ever Time I Sea Your Face” in 1973 and “Killing Me Softly with her song” In 1974. The latter would overcome again The lists three decades later with a cover of the fugos.
Roberta Flack sings on his television special that was broadcast on June 19, 1973.
ABC Photo Archive/ Disney Entertainment Content through Getty Images, File
The influence of Flack “is coming over both r& B and the indie ‘bedroom’, wrote Ann Powers in a Essay 2020calling Flack a “Titan in the eyes of many fellow demanding artists and fans.”
“In more than half a century of making music, it has been established as one of the stylists of the most distinctive songs in pop sand,” Powers wrote.
Flack was born in Black Mountain, North Carolina, in a musical family; His mother was an organist of the Church and his father, a self -taught jazz pianist. A piano prodigy won a complete music scholarship to Howard University, which began to attend the age of 15. It was there that he would meet her close friend and collaborator, the late Donny Hathaway.
His initial objective was not to be a superstar singer, but a classic concert pianist.
“My true ambition was to be a concert pianist and play Schumann and Bach and Chopin, the romantics. Those were my boys,” Flack Said NPR in 2012.
Flack taught in schools for several years before being discovered by Les McCann while doing jazz in a Washington nightclub, DC, which helped obtain an audition with its first seal, Atlantic Records.
Several years after signing with Atlantic, Clint Eastwood chose “The First Time Iver Your Face” from his 1969 debut album for the soundtrack of his 1971 film, “Play Misty for Me”, bringing flack to a more conventional audience. “Kill me softly,” he helped consolidate her like a star.
“It was unexpected and impressive,” Frack wrote in an email to The Guardian in a Profile 2020. “The transition from my life in Washington as a teacher to this type of attention was surreal.”
During the 1970s, Flack recorded duets regularly with Hathaway, including the successes “where is the love” and “The Closer I Going To You”, until his death in 1979.
In the 1980s, he began working with Péabo Bryson, even in the successful single “Tonight, I celebrate My Love”, and also had a successful duet with Maxi Priest with “Set The Night to Music”. On television, he sang “Together over the years”, the main song of the “Valerie” program, later known as “The Hogan Family”, which worked for six seasons.
Later in his career, he released “Let It Be Be Roberta”, a collection of Beatles covers, in 2012. His last album, “Running”, was launched in 2018. He retired from the tours that same year.
In 2020, he received an award for the Lifetime achievement of Grammy. Among other praise, Berklee College of Music granted him an honorary degree in the doctor in music in May 2023.
His legacy extends beyond his music. In 2010, he founded the Roberta Flack Foundation, which supports music education. He was also a spokesman for the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty towards Animals, with his song “The first time I saw your face” appeared in a commercial for the organization.
Roberta Flack is presented at the Tropical Jungle concert at Carnegie Hall, on April 27, 1998, in New York.
New York Daily News Archive through Getty Images
A long time, Flack launched a children vertical she. Father had found in a junk tank and painted green for her. In its author’s note, Flack urges readers: “Find your own ‘green piano’ and practice without rest until you find your voice, and a way of putting that beautiful music in the world.”
The documentary, “American Masters: Roberta Flack”, launched in PBS in January 2023, celebrated the music industry icon.
“She understands that an artist can offer us a voice when we cannot find ours, capturing thoughts and a variety of emotions through her song and piano,” said Antonino D’Ambrosio, director of the film, in a Essay on the documentary.
In his own words, Flack said he always wanted to be faithful to herself.
“I didn’t try to be a Soul singer, jazz singer, blues singer, without a category,” Flack wrote to The Guardian. “My music is my expression of what I feel and I believe in a moment.”
Flack married Jazz musician Steve Novosel from 1966 to 1972. He was the mother of the musician Bernard Wright, who died in May 2022.
His niece is the retired professional ice skater Rory Flack.
