Flack’s unmistakable voice and emotive delivery propelled her to stardom in the early 1970s with back-to-back Grammy-winning hits, “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” and “Killing Me Softly With His Song.”
Variety reports that her rise to fame was cemented when Clint Eastwood featured her 1969 recording of “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” in his 1971 directorial debut, Play Misty for Me, catapulting the song to No. 1 on the Billboard charts.
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Roberta Flack in 1970. Source: United Archives / Getty
She followed up that success with another chart-topping hit, 1973’s “Killing Me Softly,” which earned her a second consecutive Grammy for Record of the Year—a historic feat that would not be replicated until U2’s wins in 2001-2002.
Flack’s musical legacy includes six top-10 pop hits and 10 top-10 R&B singles, many of them duets with longtime collaborator Donny Hathaway. Their 1974 classic “Where Is the Love” topped both the pop and R&B charts, further solidifying her place in music history.
Back in 2022, Flack told PEOPLE that she was still hopeful to connect with her fans.
“The pandemic has kept most of us off the stage for two years,” Flack told PEOPLE in February. “I don’t know what the next two years will hold, but I hope to see my fans in person sometime soon.”
In 2023, she released a children’s book titled “The Green Piano: How Little Me Found Music.”
R.I.P Roberta Flack.
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