Roberta Flack, iconic soul singer behind ‘Killing Me Softly With His Song’, dies aged 88

Roberta Flack – the iconic US soul singer best known for hits such as ‘Killing Me Softly With His Song’ – has died aged 88.

Flack died on Monday, 24th February, according to her spokesperson. “We are heartbroken that the glorious Roberta Flack passed away this morning, February 24, 2025”, a spokesperson said in a statement, via the Guardian. “She died peacefully surrounded by her family. Roberta broke boundaries and records. She was also a proud educator.” Speaking to The New York Times, Flack’s manager Suzanne Koga said the singer passed away from cardiac arrest on the way to a hospital. In 2022, Roberta Flack announced she had been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and could no longer sing. Flack suffered a stroke in 2016 and fell ill onstage at the Apollo Theater in 2018.

In a memorial post shared to Flack’s Instagram, her team shared her quote: “Remember: Always walk in the light. If you feel like you’re not walking in it, go find it. Love the light.”

Flack was born into a musical family in Black Mountain, North Carolina, and grew up in Arlington, Virginia, where she took piano and performed with a local choir. While studying at DC’s Howard University, Flack switched her primary instrument from piano to voice, while still playing piano accompaniment to opera singers performing in the capital city. She wrote and performed her own music on the side. During and after college, she was a teacher in Maryland and North Carolina.

In the ’70s, Flack began singing professionally in DC jazz clubs, where she met jazz pianist and vocalist Les McCann who connected her with Atlantic Records, home of her first hit, her 1969 cover of Ewan MacColl’s ‘The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face’. The song took off in 1971 after Clint Eastwood included the full cut in his directorial debut, Play Misty for Me. In the following years, she released her other biggest hits ‘Killing Me Softly With His Song’ (1973) and ‘Feel Like Makin’ Love’ (1974), each winning her the Grammy Award winner for Record of the Year — the only artist to claim the title in three consecutive years. 

Flack was known for collaborating with artists like Donny Hathaway, Luther Vandross, Gwen Guthrie, Michael Jackson and Miles Davis. She covered the likes of Leonard Cohen and Laura Nyro, as well as The Beatles for her 2012 tribute album, ‘Let it Be Roberta’. 

Hip-hop trio Fugees covered ‘Killing Me Softly With His Song’ in 1996, taking home the Grammy for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal and reigniting interest in Flack’s version. Fugees and Flack would go on to perform the song together multiple times. 

In 2006, she returned to education by founding the Roberta Flack School of Music in the Bronx, New York. 

Watch Roberta Flack perform ‘Killing Me Softly With His Song’.