Roberta Flack

Roberta Flack was an American singer, pianist and songwriter born in Black Mountain, North Carolina, and raised in Virginia, who became one of the defining voices of early-1970s soul and pop. A classically trained musician who entered Howard University at fifteen, she began her professional career singing in Washington, D.C. clubs before being signed to Atlantic Records, where her 1969 debut First Take eventually topped the Billboard 200.

Her smooth, restrained vocal style and jazz-inflected piano playing helped shape the Quiet Storm sound, blending R&B, pop, folk and jazz into intimate, understated ballads. She became the first artist to win the Grammy for Record of the Year in consecutive years, first with «The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face» and then with «Killing Me Softly with His Song», two songs that remain among the most enduring recordings of the decade.

Flack also had major success as a duet partner, notably with Donny Hathaway on songs like «Where Is the Love» and «The Closer I Get to You», and her catalog continued to resonate through later generations via covers and samples, including the Fugees' 1996 rendition of «Killing Me Softly with His Song» and D'Angelo's cover of «Feel Like Makin' Love».