Roberta Flack, known for hits such as “The First Time I Ever Saw Your Face”, “Killing Me Softly With His Song” and “Feel Like Makin ‘Love”, died on Monday (February 24) at the age of 88. “We are insoluble that the glorious Roberta Flack died peacefully this morning with her family,” said her spokesman in an official statement. The exact cause of death was not announced, but Flack has been fighting nervous disease since 2022.
Roberta Flack: To live and your career
Roberta Cleopatra Flack was born on February 10, 1937 in Black Mountain in the US state of North Carolina. Her musical journey began early on: her mother was a church organist, and the young Roberta sang in various parishes to see music up close. She started playing the piano at the age of nine – her talent was so exceptional that she received a full scholarship for music at Howard University. There she graduated from just 19.
After completing his studies, Flack taught music in Washington, DC, and began to perform in clubs in parallel. Her breakthrough came in 1968 when she sang regularly in Mr. Henry’s restaurant on Capitol Hill. There she was discovered by jazz pianist Les McCann, who enabled her to sing at Atlantic Records. Her debut album “First Take” was released in 1969 and established her as an extraordinary artist with a classic character and a unique, minimalist style.
A milestone of her career was the collaboration with Clint Eastwood: her song “The First Time I Ever Saw Your Face” was selected for his film “Play Misty for Me” and brought her first number 1 hit in 1973 for the “Admission of the year”. Her song “Killing Me Softly” from 1973 was another milestone, which also became a hit by the Fugees.
In 2012 she released an album with Beatles-Covern (“Let It Be Roberta”), followed by her last studio album “Running” in 2018. In the same year she suffered a weakness in the Apollo Theater during an appearance in the Apollo Theater, which was attributed to an earlier stroke.
In 2020 Flack was honored with the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award for her life’s work. Two years later, she announced that she was unable to sing, which was no longer able to sing. Nevertheless, she continued to work on projects, including a children’s book (“The Green Piano: How Little Me Found Music”).