Grammy winner Roberta Flack dies aged 88

Roberta Flack, the silky-voiced Grammy-winning singer whose sultry ballads "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" and "Killing Me Softly With His Song" topped the charts in the 1970s, has died at the age of 88.

"We are heartbroken that the glorious Roberta Flack passed away this morning February 24, 2025. She died peacefully surrounded by her family. Roberta broke boundaries and records. She was also a proud educator," publicist Elaine Schock said in a statement. No cause of death was given.

The classically trained pianist defied musical genres as she blended aspects of jazz, soul, pop and R&B to create a distinctive style and became one of America's most influential singers.

Flack revealed in November 2022 that she had been diagnosed with ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, and could no longer sing. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is a progressive illness that impacts nerve cells and causes paralysis and death.

The singer won four Grammys and was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2020. She was the first artist to win two consecutive Record of the Year trophies for 1973’s "First Time I Ever Saw Your Face" and 1974's "Killing Me Softly with His Song."

"In more than a half-century of making music, she's established herself as one of the most distinctive song stylists in the pop arena," National Public Radio said of Flack in 2020.

Flack had several No. 1 hits in the 1970s and produced 20 studio albums. Although she wrote some of her own songs and collaborated on others, she considered herself as an interpreter of the music.

"When Flack sings a song, she caresses each cadence, considering and intensifying them, the better to realize the full meaning of the lyric," the Guardian newspaper said in 2020.