Roberta Cleopatra Flack (February 10, 1937 – February 24, 2025) was an American singer and pianist known for her emotional, genre-blending ballads spanning R&B, jazz, folk, and pop and contributed to the birth of Quiet Storm. Her commercial success included the Billboard Hot 100 singles: “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face”, “Killing Me Softly with His Song”, and “Feel Like Makin’ Love”.
In 2022, Roberta Flack said she suffered from the disease ALS and had to stop performing and singing. Yesterday, her publisher Ealaine Schock announced that she died at home surrounded by her family.
Flack often collaborated with Donny Hathaway, with whom she recorded several hit duets, including “Where Is the Love” and “The Closer I Get to You”. As one of the defining voices of popular music from the 1970s, she remained active in the industry, later finding success with duets such as “Tonight, I Celebrate My Love” with Peabo Bryson (1983) and “Set the Night to Music” with Maxi Priest (1991). Throughout her decades-long career, she interpreted works by songwriters such as Leonard Cohen and members of the Beatles. In 2020, Flack received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
In 1972, Flack received the Grammy for Album of the Year. She repeated the success in 1973 with “Killing Me Softly”, becoming the first artist to win the Grammy for Best Album two years in a row.
