Roberta Flack: Killing Me Softly With His Song singer and Grammy award winner dies aged 88

Grammy-winning US singer Roberta Flack has died aged 88, her publicist has confirmed.

She was known for songs including The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face, originally by Ewan MacColl, and Killing Me Softly With His Song, written by Lori Lieberman and Norman Gimbel.

In 2022 it was announced the veteran musician had ALS, commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, a progressive neurological condition that had made it “impossible” for her to sing, according to a representative.

“We are heartbroken that the glorious Roberta Flack passed away this morning, February 24 2025,” publicist Elaine Schock told the PA news agency.

“She died peacefully surrounded by her family.

“Roberta broke boundaries and records. She was also a proud educator.”

Flack was born on February 10, 1937, in North Carolina but grew up in Virginia and started classical piano lessons at the age of nine.

She was awarded a full scholarship to Howard University in Washington DC aged 15 and was assistant conductor of the university choir before returning to North Carolina following her father’s death in 1959.

She returned to the capital a year later to teach at schools and in the early 1960s she began accompanying opera singers at the Tivoli opera restaurant in Georgetown, later playing various clubs in the DC area before taking a residency at Mr Henry’s.

She began her recording career at the age of 32, after decades of classical study, teaching music and accompanying opera singers.

The First Time I Ever Saw Your Face catapulted her to stardom after Clint Eastwood used the song as the soundtrack for a love scene in his movie Play Misty For Me.

It also won the Grammy for record of the year in 1973, with her song Killing Me Softly With His Song winning best female pop vocal performance a year later.

In 2020 the Recording Academy awarded her with a lifetime achievement award.