Roberta Flack, ‘Killing Me Softly’ singer, dead: Grammy winner was 88
Roberta Flack, Grammy-winning singer, died at 88. A statement from her representative noted that Flack “died peacefully, surrounded by her family.”
Between her smoky voice and cooing ballads, Roberta Flack distinguished herself as a soulful standout.
The singer died Monday. She was 88. A statement from her representative noted that Flack “died peacefully, surrounded by her family.”
Flack’s manager, Suzanne Koga, said in an appreciation of the multi-genre star, “If Roberta Flack was unlike singers who came before her, there were many who would emulate her in her wake. In fact, her influence has never stopped reverberating. She was a woman who sang in a measured voice, but her measurements moved times and events as much as they moved hearts.”
No cause of death was provided for Flack, a staple on the R&B and adult contemporary charts throughout the ’70s and ’80s. But in November 2022, the singer announced that she suffered from ALS, commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, which prevented her from singing and made even speaking difficult. She retired from singing professionally until her death.
In a career lauded with four Grammy Awards – as well as a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2020 – Flack is regarded for a singing style polished in Washington D.C. nightclubs in the 1960s and piano skills honed from childhood.
Flack achieved a three-year stretch of hits in the 1970s with “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” (1972), “Killing Me Softly with His Song” (1973) and “Feel Like Makin’ Love” (1974). In the 1980s, she charted again with “Tonight, I Celebrate My Love,” her lush duet with Peabo Bryson. She returned to radio heights in 1991 with Maxi Priest on the woozily seductive, “Set the Night to Music.”
“She was unlike any other popular vocalist that preceded her,” said Koga, with the help of music journalist Mikal Gilmore, in an appreciation of Flack. “Indeed, Robert Flack couldn’t be contained simply by categories. She sang reveries as much as exclamations and her stillness electrified the soul.”
Her debut album, 1969’s “First Take,” is regarded as a classic, landing at No. 451 on Rolling Stone magazine’s 2020 list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. But it took three years for the record to break, which happened after “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” was used in a love scene in the Clint Eastwood movie, “Play Misty for Me.”
Along with frequent collaborator and fellow soul great Donny Hathaway, Flack released two albums, “Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway” in 1972 and “Robert Flack Featuring Donny Hathaway” in 1980, which contained posthumous vocals from Hathaway, who died in 1979.
Flack’s music was introduced to a new generation when the Lauryn Hill-fronted Fugees tapped “Killing Me Softly with His Song” for a chugging hip-hop remake in 1996. The song, which earned Flack Grammys in 1974 for record of the year and best female pop vocal performance, also landed the Fugees a Grammy in 1997 for best R&B performance by a duo or group with vocal.
Flack was born in Black Mountain, North Carolina, in 1937, but grew up in Arlington, Virginia, where she played piano and sang in the choir at Lomax African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. Her classical piano skills were so adept that she received a full music scholarship to Howard University in Washington, D.C., where, at 15, she became one of the youngest students to ever enroll there and eventually met Hathaway.
“I was a person who loved to do things. If I was given an assignment it wasn’t beyond me to do the whole book. The more I accomplished, the more people applauded,” she told South Florida’s the Sun-Sentinel in 1993.
After graduating from Howard University at 19, Flack realigned her musical talents to teaching music and English.
While days were spent instructing junior high school students in the Washington area, Flack’s nights coalesced around her budding music career. She turned professional after being hired as a regular performer at Mr. Henry’s Restaurant on Capitol Hill. After famed jazz singer Les McCann noticed her singing and playing jazz in a Washington nightclub, he brought her to the attention of Atlantic Records, where she released 13 albums between 1969 and 1994.
Flack’s last album came in 2012, “Let it Be: Roberta,” a collection of a dozen covers of songs by The Beatles, including “In My Life” and “The Long and Winding Road.”
A documentary about the singer, “Roberta,” was released in 2022, which also explored her lifelong commitment to civil rights.
