Roberta Flack Biography

Roberta Flack was a singer of soulful jazz and pop ballads, especially hits from the 1970s that included “Feel Like Makin’ Love,” “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” and “Killing Me Softly.”

After a few years of teaching and playing in Washington, D.C. nightclubs, Flack was given a recording contract in 1968. Her first hit came next, a duet with Donny Hathaway on the Carole King tune “You’ve Got a Friend.” She got a bigger break when “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” was included on the jazz-tinged soundtrack for Clint Eastwood‘s 1971 film Play Misty For Me and became a hit again in 1972.

The title cut from Flack’s 1973 album Killing Me Softly became her biggest hit. (The song was famously inspired by her experience seeing songwriter Don McLean.) She had another hit with Donny Hathaway in 1972 with “Where Is The Love?” and was recording with him in 1979 when he died.

In the 1980s, Roberta Flack toured and collaborated with Peabo Bryson, composed and recorded the soundtrack to Bustin’ Loose (1981, starring Richard Pryor), appeared with Miles Davis many times, and had hit singles with “Making Love” and “Set the Night to Music” (a duet with Maxi Priest). Nominated for a Grammy for 1994’s Roberta, Flack went on the gain a new audience in 1996 when The Fugees had a hit with their version of “Killing Me Softly.”

Roberta Flack announced in 2022 that she had ALS, often known as Lou Gehrig‘s Disease, and could no longer perform. She died three years later, in 2025.