Roberta Flack, an unforgettable voice and an artist of indisputable talent, announced in 2022 that she had been diagnosed with ALS and could no longer sing.

Little known before the age of 30, Flack became a star after Clint Eastwood used the song The First Time I Ever Saw Your Face as the soundtrack for one of the most memorable and explicit love scenes in cinema, in his 1971 film Play Misty for Me. The ballad showcases Flack’s graceful voice over a backdrop of strings and piano, and in 1972, it topped the Billboard pop chart and won a Grammy for Record of the Year.

In 1973, Roberta Flack matched both achievements with Killing Me Softly, becoming the first artist to win two consecutive Grammys for Record of the Year. A classically trained pianist, she was discovered in the late 1960s by jazz musician Les McCann, who later wrote that “her voice touched, trapped, and kicked every emotion I had ever known.” Versatile enough to evoke the rhythmic gospel passion of Aretha Franklin, Flack often preferred a more reflective and measured approach.

Roberta Flack was considered sophisticated and bold, not only in the world of music but also in society at large. Among her closest friends were Reverend Jesse Jackson and Angela Davis, an activist of the African American movement, whom the singer visited in prison while she was incarcerated on charges—of which she was later acquitted—of murder and kidnapping.

Flack sang at the funeral of Jackie Robinson, the first Black player in Major League Baseball.