Roberta Flack, legendary ‘Killing Me Softly’ singer, dead at 88

nypost.com:

revealed she had ALS in late 2022.The progressive disease “has made it impossible to sing and not easy to speak,” Flack’s manager Suzanne Koga said in a release at the time. “But it will take a lot more than ALS to silence this icon.”The 2022 release also said that the famous singer and pianist “plans to stay active in her musical and creative pursuits” through her eponymous foundation and other avenues.Flack was born in North Carolina.

As the daughter of a church organist, she learned how to play classic piano at a young age. When she turned 15, she got a scholarship at Howard University in Washington, DC, where her singing and piano talents were discovered.

She was later signed to Atlantic Records Group.Flack was best known for hits like “Killing Me Softly With His Song” and “The First Time I Ever Saw Your Face,” the latter of which catapulted her into stardom after Clint Eastwood used it as the soundtrack for a love scene in his 1971 movie “Play Misty for Me.”For both songs, Flack won back-to-back Grammy Awards for Record of the Year in 1973 and 1974.

She was the first artist to accomplish that feat.Flack’s other famous song is “Feel Like Makin’ Love,” which came out in 1974.Over her career, Flack won five Grammys out of 14 nominations.