Roberta Flack Rushed to Hospital During Apollo Theater Performance

Singer Roberta Flack was rushed to the hospital Friday night during a charity performance at the [...]

By Daniel S. Levine

Singer Roberta Flack was rushed to the hospital Friday night during a charity performance at the historic Apollo Theater in Harlem, New York City.

roberta flack
(Photo: Paul Zimmerman/WireImage/Getty)

According to TMZ, the 81-year-old "Killing Me Softly With His Song" singer was performing at a benefit for the Jazz Foundation of America. After she left the stage on her own power, someone called for an ambulance.

The New York Fire Department said an ambulance arrived at the scene at around 8:50 p.m. ET. They told TMZ they were responding to a call reporting a "sick person."

A source later told TMZ that Flack felt "extremely dizzy" as she walked offstage.

Her representative later told PEOPLE that the ambulance was called as a precaution, since she suffered a stroke in 2016.

"She suffered a stroke a few years ago," her rep says. "She didn't feel well so it was best to take her to the hospital. She's doing fine but is being kept overnight for observation."

Flack appeared to be in good spirits before the show. Musician James Mtume shared a photo of the singer smiling and wearing a bejeweled shirt. "Back together again! With the best," Mtume wrote on Instagram.

In August 2017, Flack was seen in a wheelchair accepting an award at the 2017 Black Girls Rock Awards in New Jersey.

"Celebrate your successes," Flack said in her acceptance speech, reports Noise11. "Learn through your mistakes. Be grateful forgive and persevere. I always say and I've always said, somewhere in my comment to other people love is a song. Love is a song. Each of you has a song in your heart and you keep singing that song, whatever that looks like."

Flack is best known for her No. 1 singles "The First Time I Ever Saw Your Face," "Killing Me Softly With His Song" and "Feel Like Makin' Love." Her other hits include "Where Is The Love," "The Closer I Get to You," "Tonight, I Celebrate My Love" and "Oasis."

The singer remains one of only two artists with win the Record of the Year Grammy twice in a row. She won for "The First Time I Ever Saw Your Face" in 1973, even though she first recorded the song in 1969. She recorded another version in 1971 for Clint Eastwood's Play Misty For Me.

"Clint Eastwood called, wanting to have it as a part of his film, Play Misty for Me," Flack told Billboard. "The record label wanted to have it re-recorded with a faster tempo, but he said he wanted it exactly as it was. With the song as a theme song for his movie, it gained a lot of popularity and then took off."

Flack also won Record of the Year for "Killing Me Softly With His Song."

Photo credit: Paul Zimmerman/WireImage/Getty

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