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Roberta Flack, the Grammy-award-winning singer known for the hit “Killing Me Softly With His Song,” has died at age 88. Her managers, Suzanne Koga and Mikel Gilmore, issued a joint statement about the icon’s passing in a press release. “We are heartbroken that the glorious Roberta Flack passed away this morning, February 24, 2025,” it reads. “She died peacefully, surrounded by her family. Roberta broke boundaries and records. She was also a proud educator.”
In November 2022, a rep for Flack revealed she was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), a condition commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. ALS is a fatal neurodegenerative illness that affects the motor neurons in the brain and spinal cord. Koga told NBC News that the disease “made it impossible to sing and not easy to speak.” Before the diagnosis, Flack suffered a stroke in 2016, which then contributed to her retiring from performing in 2018.
Born in Black Mountain, North Carolina, Flack became the first artist to consecutively win the Grammys’ Record of the Year category with her singles “First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” in 1973 and “Killing Me Softly With His Song” in ’74.
The statement from her reps cites a particular quote from the singer’s 2022 documentary, Roberta, as an example of her thoughts on her lasting career in song.
“If I have to use one phrase to describe how I feel about the whole experience, it would simply be that Love is a Song and an honest giving of feelings and emotions,” she said in the film. “As a performer, if you can connect to that thought, then whatever the song is, it’s a success. It’s not like I’m trying to sound like somebody else or be somebody else. I’m happy to be Roberta Flack. I’m happy to sound like I do. So that feels good. I mean, I’m very satisfied with that.”
VIBE sends our condolences to Roberta Flack’s family and friends.
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English (US) ·