On February 24, 2025, Grammy-award winning singer
Roberta Flack died peacefully surrounded by family due to
heart complications. Flack was a famous soul and R&B singer,
with her most popular hits being “Killing me Softly” and
“Where Is the Love.” Despite the sudden death, Flack has
already cemented her legacy as one of the best singers of her
generation. She’s been nominated for a Grammy 12 times and
won 5 times, which includes the Lifetime Achievement Award,
acknowledging her lasting impact on the music industry. She’s also won back-to-back Record of the Year wins. Born and raised in Virginia, Flack grew to enjoy classical writing and started piano lessons at the age of 9. She soon won a
scholarship and graduated in 1958 with a bachelor’s degree in
music education. She taught music and wished to pursue a
career in music. However, she soon found the genre to be
uninviting.

“One of the hassles of being a Black female musician is that
people are always backing you into a corner and telling you to sing soul. I’m a serious artist. I feel a kinship with people like Arthur Rubinstein and Glenn Gould. If I can’t play Bartok when I want to play Bartok, then nothing else matters.”

Although she spent most nights discovering pop instead, she was soon discovered by a jazz musician that helped her to land an audition with Atlantic Records. Soon after in 1969, she released her debut album “First Take.” It soon showed up in the Billboard Hot 100, where it spent six weeks at No. 1 and won Record of the Year at the Grammy Awards. Throughout
her career, she interpreted different artists like The Beatles and Leonard Cohen. Flack’s influence throughout the decades has not gone unnoticed and even influenced other musicians such as the Fugees and Lauryn Hill. Whether it be to support human rights, to tell a story, or to protest, all of her songs were meaningful and expressed something that was personal to her. As a result, her legacy will continue to inspire others for many years to come.