Roberta Flack, the legendary R&B songstress who rocketed to international stardom with the unforgettable smash hit “Killing Me Softly,” has died. She was 88.
No cause of death was given at the time of Flack’s passing, according to the statement obtained by Variety magazine. But “Good Morning America” reported in 2023 that Flack had lost the ability to sing anymore due to her diagnosis with ALS, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, which is a degenerative disease that greatly impacts motor neurons that control voluntary muscle movements.
“We are heartbroken that the glorious Roberta Flack passed away this morning, February 24, 2025,” the statement reads. “She died peacefully surrounded by her family. Roberta broke boundaries and records. She was also a proud educator.”
Roberta Flack’s global appeal explained
Music connoisseur and author Peter Shapiro summarized Flack’s universal appeal in The Rough Guide to Soul and R&B.
“Urbane, genteel and jazzy, Roberta Flack was, in many ways, the perfect soul act of the early ’70s. Her pretty, sensuous ballads appealed to the Burt Bacharach/5th Dimension crowd, while her shimmering keyboards and flawless diction made her the poster child of the penthouse soul crowd.”
Roberta Flack was a child prodigy and scholastic genius
Born in Black Mountain, N.C., about 100 miles west of Charlotte, Flack was a classically trained pianist and scholastic genius who received a full scholarship to Howard University at the tender age of 15.
After matriculating through Howard University, Flack taught in the school systems in Washington, D.C. and Charlotte and moonlighted as a performer at night. A fortuitous meeting with jazz composer and singer Les McCann, who was a big star at Atlantic Records, led the executives there to sign Flack in 1968.
Flack’s big break came when her song “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” was used by legendary actor Clint Eastwood who was making his directorial debut in the thriller “Play Misty for Me.” The song soared to No. 1 on the Billboard charts and earned Flack her first Grammy Award for “Record of the Year.”
The songstress scored a succession of R&B hits with Donny Hathaway and others on such songs as “You’ve Got a Friend,” “Where is the Love,” and “The First Time.”
Therefore, Flack was already a well-known musical commodity when Flack heard a version of “Killing Me Softly” while reportedly on a flight to New York. The original recording by Lori Lieberman failed to chart, but Flack’s rendition of the song soared into the intergalactic realms and the history books.
Killing Me Softly album peaked at No. 3 and went double platinum. The song was named record of the year and best female pop vocal performance at the 1974 Grammys ceremony, and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999.
Decades later, Lauryn Hill of The Fugees performed the cover of the song in 1996 cover, which soared to No. 1 on the Billboard R&B chart.
