Roberta Flack, 'Killing Me Softly with His Song' Singer, Dies at 88: 'We Are Heartbroken'

Mar. 15, 2025

Grammy award-winning singerRoberta Flackhas died. She was 88.

Per a press release, the Grammy-winning musician died on Monday, Feb. 24. No cause of death was revealed, though Flack was diagnosedwith amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, 2½ years ago.

Flack was one of the top music stars of the ’70s, with three No. 1 singles in the span of two years: “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face,” “Killing Me Softly with His Song” and “Feel Like Makin' Love.”

In November 2022, a spokesperson for the legendary singer-songwriter told PEOPLE thatFlack had been diagnosed with ALSthat August and was hospitalized for treatment. According to a press release issued at the time, the disease “has made it impossible to sing and not easy to speak.”

Roberta Flack on ‘Saturday Night Live’ in October 1975.Ann Limongello/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty

Ann Limongello/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty

“It will take a lot more than ALS to silence this icon,” the statement read. “Miss Flack plans to stay active in her musical and creative pursuits. Her fortitude and joyful embrace of music that lifted her from modest circumstances to the international spotlight remain vibrant and inspired.”

Earlier that year, the musician opened up about thebig plansshe had for the future, despite previous health setbacks including a 2016 stroke and a relatively mild bout of breakthrough COVID-19 in January 2022.

Roberta Flack ‘The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face’ artwork.Courtesy Atlantic

“The pandemic has kept most of us off the stage for two years,” Flack told PEOPLE. “I don’t know what the next two years will hold, but I hope to see my fans in person sometime soon.”

On April 21, 2018, Flack was rushed out of the historic Apollo Theater in New York during a benefit concert — where she was set to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Jazz Foundation of America — andtaken to the hospitalafter falling ill.

Roberta Flack in July 1971.David Redfern/Redferns/Getty

“She suffered a stroke a few years ago,” her manager told PEOPLE. “She didn’t feel well, so it was best to take her to the hospital. She’s doing fine but is being kept overnight for observation.”

Born in 1937 in North Carolina, Flack received her first piano from her father, who rescued it from a junkyard.

“He painted it green, and it smelled bad, but I played and practiced for untold hours on that piano,” shetold PEOPLEin 2022. “It gave me wings of music that as a 9-year-old girl I needed so badly. I’ve been knocked down so many times, but I kept trying. Keep trying.”

Flack graduated from Howard University at 19 and was a schoolteacher before launching her singing career in the ’60s.

In 1969, she released her debut album,First Take, but it wasn’t until 1972, afterClint Eastwoodplucked “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” from the LP for his filmPlay Misty for Me, that her career took off.

“Through the years, I’ve sung that song thousands of times, and it has taken on different stories in my life, [but] honestly, at the time it was recorded, I sang it about my cat who had just died,” Flack told PEOPLE of her breakthrough hit. “I loved that cat so much. That’s the story I was telling in the recording.”

Though Flack was not the first person to perform and record “Killing Me Softly with His Song” (Lori Lieberman first recorded it in 1971), Flack released her version in January 1973 where it stayed in the No. 1 position for five weeks.

Flack continued to gain fame throughout the ’70s with her hit No. 1 singles “Killing Me Softly with His Song” and “Feel Like Makin' Love.”

From left: Yoko Ono, John Lennon and Roberta Flack at the Grammy Awards in 1975.Tim Boxer/Getty

She was the first, and remains the only, solo artist to win the Grammy Award for Record of the Year for two consecutive years.

After taking atwo-year hiatusto deal with tonsillitis, Flack returned to music in 1977 with her albumBlue Lights in the Basement.Her single, “The Closer I Get to You,” a duet with Donny Hathaway, became a hit. In the ’80s and ’90s, she had other duet hits with Peabo Bryson (“Tonight I Celebrate My Love”) and Maxi Priest (“Set the Night to Music”).

Peabo Bryson and Roberta Flack in October 1983.Gene Arias/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty

Gene Arias/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty

Flack’s most recent album,Let It Be Roberta —on which she coveredThe Beatles’classics—was released in 2012. Her final stage performance was a duet with Valerie Simpson in 2017 at Lincoln Center in New York City.

She released a single called “Running” in 2018 from the soundtrack for the documentary3100: Run and Become, tellingBillboardat the time in a statement, “The music remains my lifeline. And the lyrics for ‘Running’ speak to where I am now, working to keep going through music.”

A documentary about the singer calledRobertapremiered at New York’s DOC NYC film festival in 2022, ahead of its early 2023 television debut on PBS as part of the “American Masters” series. Flack also published a children’s book that told the story of her childhood (and the piano her father gave her) calledThe Green Piano: How Little Me Found Music.

Roberta Flack in August 2017.Paul Zimmerman/WireImage

Flack’s 2022 was stacked with celebrations for the singer. Her soundtrack album for the 1982 Richard Pryor filmBustin' Loosereceived a digital re-release after being out of print for decades, in commemoration of the 40th anniversary of its release.

“It was, and to some degree, still is a rare thing for a Black female artist to be asked to produce anything for a major film or a major label,” she said. “The glass ceiling that existed then, and let’s face it, still exists now, is gradually being pushed through, but it is a very real challenge for women of any color — especially for women of color.”

In May 2023, Flack received an honorary doctorate from the Berklee College of Music. In a speech that her former student and background singer Gabrielle Goodman read on her behalf, Flack wrote: “I wish that I could meet each of you, but through my words, know that I love you and am so proud of you. Your future lies ahead of you and is as bright as you are.”

source: people.com