Roberta Flack Dead at 88

Grammy-award winning singer Roberta Flack has died. The legendary pop/R&B vocalist, known for songs like “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” and “Killing Me Softly With His Song,” passed away on Monday, Feb. 24 at the age of 88, her representative confirmed in a statement. She was 88.

“We are heartbroken that the glorious Roberta Flack passed away this morning, February 24, 2025,” the statement read, per Variety. “She died peacefully surrounded by her family. Roberta broke boundaries and records. She was also a proud educator.”

The statement did not disclose Flack’s cause of death, but the musician suffered numerous health setbacks in recent years. In 2016, she suffered a stroke. In January 2022, she dealt with a case of breakthrough COVID-19. A few months later, in November 2022, Flack’s spokesperson confirmed that she’d been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS (the rare degenerative disease also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, that August. At the time, a press release said “the disease “has made it impossible to sing and not easy to speak,” but added, “it will take a lot more than ALS to silence this icon. Miss Flack plans to stay active in her musical and creative pursuits.”

Born in North Carolina in 1937, Flack became an overnight sensation in 1971 when Clint Eastwood used her song “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” in his directorial debut Play Misty for Me. The song, from Flack’s 1969 debut album, First Take, became a No. 1 pop hit,earned flack a Grammy for record of the year, and kick started Flack’s music career, which she’d launched in the ‘60s after first taking an interest in music as a child.

“Through the years, I’ve sung that song thousands of times, and it has taken on different stories in my life, [but] honestly, at the time it was recorded, I sang it about my cat who had just died,” Flack previously told PEOPLE of the hit. “I loved that cat so much. That’s the story I was telling in the recording.”

Flack followed up “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” with another chart-topping hit, “Killing Me Softly,” in 1973. The song, which had first been recorded by Lori Lieberman in 1971, stayed in the No. 1 position for five weeks and earned Flack another Grammy for record of the year, making her the first artist to win consecutive Grammys in the category.

Flack charted one more No. 1 single during in the ‘70s, “Feel Like Makin’ Love.” In total, she charted six top-10 pop hits and 10 top-10 R&B singles, finding success with songs like “The Closer I Get to You,” a duet with Donny Hathaway, and “Tonight I Celebrate My Love” with Peabo Bryson.

Flack released more than a dozen albums throughout her career, her most recent, Let It Be Roberta, dropping in 2012. She also released a single called “Running” in 2018. She received a total of 13 Grammy nominations, ultimately winning five times, including a lifetime achievement Grammy in 2020.

Flack is survived by her son, musician Bernard Wright.