“We are heartbroken that the glorious Roberta Flack passed away this morning, February 24, 2025,” said a statement from her representatives.
“She died peacefully surrounded by her family. Roberta broke boundaries and records. She was also a proud educator.”
Flack had previously announced in 2022 that she had motor neurone disease, and could no longer sing.
Born in North Carolina and raised in Arlington, Virginia, the musician started out as a classical pianist, first teaching music.
Her recording career started after she was discovered singing in a jazz club by musician Les McCann, who later wrote that “her voice touched, tapped, trapped, and kicked every emotion I’ve ever known”.
In 2020, a year after having a stroke, Flack was awarded a lifetime achievement award from the Grammys.
“It’s a tremendous and overwhelming honour,” she said at the time.
“I’ve tried my entire career to tell stories through my music. This award is a validation to me that my peers heard my thoughts and took in what I have tried to give.”
Once married, to US jazz musician Stephen Novosel, the star devoted a lot of her time to the Roberta Flack School of Music in New York.
Flack’s most famous song was introduced to a new generation of music fans when Lauryn Hill’s hip-hop group The Fugees recorded a Grammy-winning cover of Killing Me Softly, which they would eventually perform on-stage alongside her.
