The R&B singer Roberta Flack, finest identified for the hits The First Time Ever I Noticed Your Face and Killing Me Softly With His Music, has died on the age of 88.
“We’re heartbroken that the fantastic Roberta Flack handed away this morning, February 24, 2025,” mentioned a press release from her representatives.
“She died peacefully surrounded by her household. Roberta broke boundaries and data. She was additionally a proud educator.”
Flack had beforehand introduced in 2022 that she had motor neurone illness, and will not sing.
Born in North Carolina and raised in Arlington, Virginia, the musician began out as a classical pianist, first instructing music.
Her recording profession began after she was found singing in a jazz membership by musician Les McCann, who later wrote that “her voice touched, tapped, trapped, and kicked each emotion I’ve ever identified”.
However she did not rating her first hit till she was in her 30s – when her recording of Ewan MacColl’s The First Time Ever I Noticed Your Face was used to soundtrack an specific love scene in Clint Eastwood’s 1971 movie Play Misty For Me.
It was subsequently named tune of the 12 months on the Grammys. Flack gained the award a second time the next 12 months, for Killing Me Softly With His Music.
After topping the charts once more in 1974 with Really feel Like Makin’ Love, Flack took a break from performing to focus on recording and charitable causes.
Over the course of her profession, she labored with artists together with Donny Hathaway and Miles Davis, and recorded an album of Beatles covers in 2012.
In 2020, a 12 months after having a stroke, Flack was awarded a lifetime achievement award from the Grammys.
“It is a super and overwhelming honour,” she mentioned on the time.
“I’ve tried my total profession to inform tales via my music. This award is a validation to me that my friends heard my ideas and took in what I’ve tried to offer.”
