Roberta Flack, Known for "Killing Me Softly With His Song" and Other Hits, Dead at 88

Roberta Flack is dead.

In a statement from a rep on Monday, per a report from The Guardian, the “Killing Me Softly With His Song” singer’s death was announced as having occurred earlier this morning. She was 88.

“She died peacefully surrounded by her family,” the spokesperson said. “Roberta broke boundaries and records. She was also a proud educator.”

Flack, born in North Carolina, made her studio debut in 1969 with the Atlantic Records release First Take, featuring a rendition of Ewan MacColl’s “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” that later won the Grammy for Record of the Year. The following year, Flack won that same category again with Charles Fox and Norman Gimbel’s “Killing Me Softly With His Song,” making history in the process.

Flack also had Hot 100 hits with “Where Is the Love,” “Feel Like Makin’ Love,” “The Closer I Get to You” with Donny Hathaway, “Set the Night to Music” with Maxi Priest, and more. Her most recent full-length, Let It Be: Roberta, saw Flack putting her own spin on a dozen classic songs from The Beatles, “Hey Jude” and “Come Together” among them.

In 2022, Flack, via a rep, announced that she had been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. The condition, her spokesperson said at the time, meant that it had become “impossible” for her to sing.

"I always say that 'love is a song' — meaning that music reaches beyond age, race, nationality and religion to touch our hearts," Flack once said in an email to a reporter, per NPR.

The generations-spanning adoration of Flack’s art would seem to prove that sentiment.

RIP.