Grammy Award winner Roberta Flack has died from natural causes. She was 88.
“We are heartbroken that the glorious Roberta Flack passed away this morning February 24, 2025,” a statement read on Monday. “She died peacefully surrounded by her family. Roberta broke boundaries and records. She was also a proud educator.”
In November 2022, a spokesperson told PEOPLE that Flack had been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, and was hospitalized. According to a press release issued at the time, the disease “has made it impossible to sing and not easy to speak.”
Flack lost mobility and was wheelchair bound.
“It will take a lot more than ALS to silence this icon,” a statement read at the time. “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.”
Flack topped the Billboard charts with her No. 1 singles “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face”, “Killing Me Softly with His Song”, and “Feel Like Makin’ Love”.
She was the first R&B artist to win the Grammy Award for Record of the Year in two consecutive years: “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” (1973) and “Killing Me Softly with His Song” (1974).
Flack was beloved by her contemporaries. She was often tapped to collaborate on songs with other artists, including Michael Jackson. She performed “When We Grow Up” with a teenage Michael on the 1974 After-School program, Free to Be… You and Me.”
Born in Black Mountain, North Carolina, and raised in Arlington, Virginia, Flack was classically trained on the piano by age 9. By age 15, she’d earned a full music scholarship to Howard University, where she graduated in 1958 with a bachelor’s degree in music education.
While teaching music to high school students, Flack performed the piano in Washington, DC nightclubs. A voice teacher encouraged her to sing pop music.
Jazz pianist and vocalist Les McCann discovered Flack singing and playing jazz in a Washington, D.C. nightclub. He arranged an audition for her with Atlantic Records. In November 1968, she recorded 39 song demos in less than 10 hours. Three months later, Atlantic recorded Flack’s debut album, First Take.
Her debut album didn’t sell well, until actor/director Clint Eastwood chose a song, “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” off the album. Eastwood paid Flack $2,000 for use of the song.
The song was featured on the sound track of his movie Play Misty for Me. “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” became the biggest hit of the year in 1972.
The First Take album peaked at No. 1 and eventually sold 1.9 million copies in the United States. The song won the Grammy Award for Record of the Year in 1973.
The hits continued. In 1972, Flack scored another Grammy for “Where Is the Love” and later “The Closer I Get to You” (1978), both million-selling gold singles.
