Roberta Flack, Grammy award-winning soul and R&B singer/musician of “Killing Me Softly with His Song,” among many more ballads, died peacefully at her home surrounded by family. She was 88.
“We are heartbroken that the glorious Roberta Flack passed away this morning February 24, 2025,” a statement read on Monday to People magazine.
“She died peacefully surrounded by her family,” it added. “Roberta broke boundaries and records. She was also a proud educator.”
A cause of death has not yet been released. However, it comes after a representative for Flack shared in 2022 that the star’s singing career was over after she had been diagnosed with ALS, commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, the Associated Press noted.
Legendary pop/R&B vocalist Roberta Flack, who was launched to stardom in the early ’70s by the Grammy-winning hits “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” and “Killing Me Softly With His Song,” has died. She was 88. https://t.co/WfpVHIjz6y pic.twitter.com/Q6dmM6z8Xg
— Variety (@Variety) February 24, 2025
Born in 1937 in Black Mountain, North Carolina, and raised in Virginia, Flack was a trained pianist whose talent for singing was discovered after graduating from Howard University. Her career exploded in the 1970s with the release of her song, “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face.”
And it was thanks to actor Clint Eastwood who pushed to have her song with her tempo included in the soundtrack to his 1971 movie “Play Misty for Me” with Donna Mills.
“The record label wanted to have it re-recorded with a faster tempo, but he said he wanted it exactly as it was,” Flack told the AP in 2018. “With the song as a theme song for his movie, it gained a lot of popularity and then took off.”
The song soared to the top of the Billboard chart in 1972 and she ended up winning a Grammy for record of the year, the AP noted.
The following year, she hit another gold with the release of her version of “Killing Me Softly with His Song” and won another Grammy for best record — a first for any artist.
Flack went on to find success with duet hits such as “Where is the Love,” “The Closer I Get to You,” and “Feel Like Makin’ Love,” which she performed with her close late-friend Donny Hathaway.
“We were deeply connected creatively,” Flack told Vibe in 2022, AP noted. “He could play anything, sing anything. Our musical synergy was unlike (anything) I’d had before or since.”
Following news of the singer’s death, musicians and artists took to social media to pay tribute to the singer.
Queen Latifah wrote on X, “Rest in peace to Howard graduate, classically trained pianist, songwriter, singer, & the first artist to ever win a Grammy for Record of the Year in two consecutive years, Miss Roberta Flack. Her & her fellow songwriter Donny Hathaway are now reunited.”
Jennifer Hudson wrote, “So sad to hear of Roberta Flack’s passing. One of the great soul singers of all time. Rest well, Ms. Flack. Your legacy lives on!!!”
Clint Eastwood added, “Rest in Peace Roberta Flack…”
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