Roberta Flack, the Grammy-winning singer, songwriter and pianist known for “Killing Me Softly With His Song,” has died. She was 88.
“We are heartbroken that the glorious Roberta Flack passed away this morning, Feb. 24, 2025,” her rep told Variety in a Monday statement. “She died peacefully surrounded by her family. Roberta broke boundaries and records. She was also a proud educator.”
Flack was born in Black Mountain, North Carolina on Feb. 10, 1937 to Laron and Irene Flack. Her parents moved to Arlington, Virginia when she was five and her mother played organ in church. Flack would be exposed to gospel music at an early age, with Mahalia Jackson singing at another church across the street from her house.
She would begin piano lessons at age nine and won second prize in a piano competition for African American students at age 13 and received a full scholarship to Howard University in Washington D.C. after graduating from high school at fifteen. She would go to college to be a classical concert pianist, but later began studying the voice, hoping to be an opera singer. After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in music education, Flack would teach music and English in public schools to help support her family following her father’s death in 1959.
At the same time, she continued to develop her music skills, working as an accompanist at vocal studios, including one run by Todd Duncan and Frederick Wilkerson. She began accompanying opera singers at he Tivoli Opera Restaurant in Georgetown in 1962 and would go on to start singing and playing popular, blues, gospel, R&B songs there as well, which would turn into performances at clubs in Washington, including Mr. Henry’s, the Capitol Hill Club and the 1520 club.
She would quit teaching in order to focus on her musical career in 1967 and her breakthrough came a year later, when jazz pianist Les McCann heard her perform and sent a tape of her music to Atlantic Records, whom she signed with.
She would release her debut album First Take with Atlantic in 1969, which initially did not chart. But she earned significant exposure through an appearance on The Third Bill Cosby Special in 1970 and the use of her single “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” in Clint Eastwood’s 1971 film Play Misty For Me gave her significant exposure. By 1972, the single had risen to No.1 on the pop charts and won a Grammy award for record of the year. The album eventually reached No. 1 on the R&B chart and No. 3 on the jazz chart.
Over the course of her career, she would be nominated for a total of 13 Grammy Awards, win a total of four between 1972 and 1974, was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1999, founded the Roberta Flack School of Music at the Hyde Leadership Charter School in New York City in 2007 and was inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame in 2009.
In 2022, Flack announced that she had ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), popularly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.
Flack is survived by her son, musician Bernard Wright.
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