Roberta Flack, soulful R&B vocalist known for 'Killing Me Softly With His Song,' dies at 88

Roberta Flack, whose tender vocals made her one of R&B's most beloved singers in a celebrated career, including the Grammy-winning hits "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" and "Killing Me Softly With His Song," has died. She was 88.

Flack died on Monday, Feb. 24, while surrounded by family, her publicist confirmed to Entertainment Weekly. No cause of death was cited. Flack previously announced in 2022 that she had been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), otherwise known as Lou Gehrig's disease, and could no longer sing or speak.

"Roberta broke boundaries and records," read a statement from her reps. "She was unlike any other popular vocalist that preceded her."

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Born in North Carolina to musical parents, Flack learned to play the piano at 9. A prodigy, Flack was one of the youngest students ever accepted to Howard University when, at 15, she was offered a full scholarship to study music.

A graduate by age 19, the classically trained pianist and singer aspired to become an opera singer. Instead, she took up a teaching post in North Carolina before relocating to Washington D.C., where she continued teaching while finding time to perform in nightclubs. Her vocal stylings pulled elements from various genres, blending classical, blues, folk, Motown, and pop.

Flack would release two albums before her career truly took off: 1969's First Take, which has since garnered wide acclaim, and 1970's Chapter Two. Her rise to prominence came when director Clint Eastwood used one of her songs, "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face," in his first film, 1971's Play Misty for Me, a thriller about a female stalker.

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Speaking to The Guardian in 2020, Flack recalled getting the news from Eastwood, who was already famous for his acting career, ahead of his directorial debut.

"He called me at home in Alexandria, Virginia. I couldn’t believe Clint Eastwood was calling me. I almost passed out!" Flack shared. "He wanted to use my song only in a part of the movie where there was pure and absolute love. I told him OK, but that I wanted to re-record it because I thought it was too slow. He said: ‘No, it’s not.'"

Flack's rendition of the tune, originally penned by British folkie Ewan MacColl, soon became a smash hit and won the 1973 Grammy Award for Record of the Year. The very next year, Flack's "Killing Me Softly With His Song" — another cover given new life by her expressive interpretation (Lori Lieberman first recorded it in 1971) — took home a Grammy in the same category, a feat that stood unmatched until U2's back-to-back Record of the Year wins in 2001 and 2002, and Billie Eilish's in 2020 and 2021.

Flack continued scoring hits throughout the '70s and '80s, often dueting with artists such as Donny Hathaway and Peabo Bryson. In 1996, her music once again felt suddenly ubiquitous, as the Fugees' cover of "Killing Me Softly With His Song," which owed a creative debt to her own version, dominated pop radio.

Later, Flack would be honored for her influential contributions to music across genres. In 1999, she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and in 2020, she received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Two years later, Roberta, a long-overdue documentary about her place in music history, premiered.

In archival footage, Flack reflects on her career, saying, "If I have to use one phrase to describe how I feel about the whole experience, it would simply be that Love is a Song and an honest giving of feelings and emotions. As a performer, if you can connect to that thought, then whatever the song is, it’s a success. It’s not like I’m trying to sound like somebody else or be somebody else. I’m happy to be Roberta Flack. I’m happy to sound like I do. So that feels good. I’m very satisfied with that."

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly