“Now that’s hard to do. To be moved, to be moved constantly by your own songs.”
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Roberta Flack
Roberta Cleopatra Flack was an American singer and pianist known for her emotive, genre-blending ballads that spanned R&B, jazz, folk, and pop and contributed to the birth of the quiet storm radio format. Her commercial success included the Billboard Hot 100 chart-topping singles "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face", "Killing Me Softly with His Song", and "Feel Like Makin' Love". She became the f…
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entertainment · American singer (1937–2025) · singer-songwriter · teacher · singer · pianist · recording artist · soul musician · composer · also Roberta Flack, Roberta Cleopatra Flack, Flack
Born 10 February 1937 · Died 24 February 2025 · Q231484
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2026· 12 entries
“Tell the truth with clarity and honesty so that the listener can feel their story.”
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“I found in it wonderful melodies and harmonies that were the vehicles through which I could express myself.”
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“I love the stories the songs tell. I love the simplicity — the fact that they”
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Kingsport Times News: Local painter Jason Flack shares story behind his art
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Johnson City Press: Flack\'s works are an assortment of subjects, from his grandfathers to a skeleton playing a piano, though all his pieces feature bold colors and a 90s feel.
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Johnson City Press: Flack shared his favorite painting is titled "grandaddies", which features his two grandfathers.
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Far Out Magazine: Which “trembling” 1971 ballad inspired Roberta Flack’s classic ‘Killing Me Softly (With His Song)’?
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Encyclopaedia Britannica: Donny Hathaway | Biography, Soul Music, This Christmas, Roberta Flack, & Facts
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Released album “The Montreux Years (Live)”.
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Public attention spiked: 6,709 Wikipedia readers in one day, 7.4× the usual 905, with 0 article edits.
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Released album “With Her Songs: The Atlantic Albums, 1969–1978”.
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2025· 11 entries
Published video “Roberta Flack - The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire) [Lyric Video]”.
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Published video “Roberta Flack - The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire) [Visualizer]”.
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Released album “Holidays”.
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Published video “Eternally - Roberta Flack TV clip.”.
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Published video “Robert Flack Memorial Celebration of Life - March 10, 2025, Abyssinian Baptist Church, Harlem, NY.”.
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The Guardian: Music flows as Stevie Wonder and Lauryn Hill lead tributes at Roberta Flack memorial
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The Guardian: Roberta Flack’s performances softly burned with the fire of life itself
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The Guardian: Roberta Flack obituary
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The Guardian: Roberta Flack – a life in pictures
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The Guardian: Roberta Flack, soul and R&B icon behind Killing Me Softly, dies aged 88
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Died 2025-02-24.
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2024· 1 entry
Released ep “All you have to do is call and I’ll be there”.
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2023· 2 entries
Flack received an honorary doctorate from Berklee College of Music
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The PBS series American Masters opened its 37th season with an hour-long look at her career
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2022· 2 entries
The Guardian: Roberta Flack has ALS which ‘has made it impossible to sing’
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Flack was honored with the DAR Women in American History Award and a restored fire callbox in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Washington D
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2021· 1 entry
Flack was one of the first inductees into the Women Songwriters Hall of Fame
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2020· 5 entries
Published video “Roberta Flack - “Hush-A-Bye” from FIRST TAKE: 50th Anniversary Edition”.
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Awarded Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award (2020).
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Published video “Roberta Flack - Tryin' Times (Official Video)”.
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The Guardian: Roberta Flack: 'My music is my expression of what I feel in a moment'
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Flack received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award
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2018· 1 entry
Flack was appearing onstage at the Apollo Theater at a benefit for the Jazz Foundation of America when she became ill, left the stage and was rushed to the Harlem Hospital Center
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2017· 1 entry
Roberta Flack received an honorary Doctorate degree in the Arts from Long Island University
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2015· 1 entry
The Guardian: Roberta Flack: soundtrack of my life
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2013· 1 entry
Was reported to be involved in an interpretative album of the Beatles' classics
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2012· 3 entries
Released album “Original Album Series”.
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Released album “S.O.U.L.”.
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Released album “Let It Be Roberta: Roberta Flack Sings the Beatles”.
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2011· 2 entries
Published video “Roberta Flack - We Can Work It Out (2011) (HQ)”.
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Released album “Love Songs”.
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2010· 1 entry
Appeared on the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards, singing a duet of "Where Is The Love" with Maxwell
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2006· 3 entries
The Guardian: Roberta Flack, Hammersmith Apollo, London
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Released album “The Very Best of Roberta Flack”.
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Released album “The Soul of Roberta Flack in Concert”.
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2005· 1 entry
Released album “Pair of Fives: Roberta Flack / Dionne Warwick”.
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2004· 1 entry
But for unknown reasons Flack refused permission for her image and recording to be included
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1999· 2 entries
Released album “Friends: Roberta Flack Sings Mariko Takahashi”.
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A star with Flack's name was placed on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
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1997· 1 entry
Released album “The Christmas Album”.
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1996· 1 entry
The Fugees released a hip-hop remix of "Killing Me Softly"
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1994· 1 entry
Released album “Roberta”.
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1993· 1 entry
Released album “Softly With These Songs: The Best of Roberta Flack”.
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1992· 1 entry
Released album “Stop the World”.
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1991· 2 entries
Released album “Set the Night to Music”.
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Flack found herself again in the US Top 10 with a cover of the Diane Warren-penned song "Set the Night to Music", performed as a duet with British-Jamaican reggae singer Maxi Priest, which peaked at No
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1989· 1 entry
After failing to chart on the Billboard Hot 100
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1988· 3 entries
Released album “Oasis”.
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She also counted among her friends the activists Jesse Jackson and Angela Davis, as well as Maya Angelou, who co-wrote the song "And So It Goes" for Flack's 1988 album Oasis.
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And failed to make an impact with pop audiences, though the title track reached No
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1987· 1 entry
Flack supplied the voice of Michael Jackson's mother in the 18-minute short film for "Bad"
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1986· 1 entry
Sang the theme song "Together Through the Years" for the NBC television series Valerie, later known as The Hogan Family
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1984· 2 entries
Flack recorded a version of Yoko Ono's song 'Goodbye Sadness' for Ono's mourning of John Lennon's death, as she had become particularly close with Ono, her New York next door neighbour, after the death
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Released album “Greatest Hits”.
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1983· 3 entries
Released album “Born to Love”.
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Flack recorded the end music to the Dirty Harry film Sudden Impact, at Eastwood's request
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Produced a hit single, "Tonight, I Celebrate My Love", which reached No
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1982· 3 entries
With "Making Love", written by Burt Bacharach (the title track of the 1982 film of the same name), which reached No
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Released album “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face”.
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Released album “I’m the One”.
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1981· 2 entries
Released album “Bustin’ Loose (Music From the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)”.
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Released album “The Best of Roberta Flack”.
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1980· 2 entries
As "Roberta Flack featuring Donny Hathaway"
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Released album “Live & More”.
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1979· 1 entry
Released album “Roberta Flack featuring Donny Hathaway”.
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1978· 2 entries
Released album “Roberta Flack”.
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Began working on a second album of duets, which was half-completed when Hathaway, a paranoid schizophrenic who suffered mood swings and bouts of depression, took his own life in 1979
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1977· 1 entry
Released album “Blue Lights in the Basement”.
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1975· 2 entries
Released album “Feel Like Makin’ Love”.
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Performed two Johnny Marks songs, "To Love And Be Loved" and "When Autumn Comes", for the animated Christmas special The Tiny Tree
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1974· 5 entries
Awarded American Music Award for Favorite Soul/R&B Female Artist (1974).
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Awarded Grammy Award for Record of the Year for Killing Me Softly with His Song (1974).
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Awarded Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for Killing Me Softly with His Song (1974).
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Flack released "Feel Like Makin' Love", which became her third and final No
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Flack sang the lead on a Sherman Brothers song, "Freedom", which featured prominently at the opening and closing of the movie Huckleberry Finn
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1973· 5 entries
Released album “Killing Me Softly”.
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Awarded Grammy Award for Record of the Year for The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face (1973).
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Awarded Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals for Where Is the Love (1973).
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Released ep “Woman From Tokyo”.
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"Killing Me Softly with His Song", written by Charles Fox, Norman Gimbel l, and Lori Lieberman
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1972· 2 entries
Released album “Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway”.
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Flack began recording regularly with Donny Hathaway, scoring hits such as the Grammy-winning "Where Is the Love" (1972) and later "The Closer I Get to You" (1978), both of which became million-selling gold singles
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1971· 3 entries
Flack participated in the legendary Soul to Soul concert film by Denis Sanders, which was headlined by Wilson Pickett, along with Ike & Tina Turner, Santana, The Staple Singers, Les McCann, Eddie Harris, The Voices of Ea
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Released album “Quiet Fire”.
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The Village Voice critic Robert Christgau reported that "Flack is generally regarded as the most significant new black woman singer since Aretha Franklin, and at moments she sounds kind, intelligent, and very likable
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1970· 2 entries
Released album “Chapter Two”.
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And marked the start of her collaboration with Hathaway as arranger, accompanist and backing singer
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1969· 1 entry
Released album “First Take”.
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1968· 1 entry
Began singing professionally after she was hired to perform regularly at Mr
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1952· 1 entry
Where she was one of the youngest students ever to be accepted
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1937· 2 entries
In Black Mountain, North Carolina, United States, to parents Laron Flack, a jazz pianist and U
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Born 1937-02-10.
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