I randomly stumbled upon and became captivated by soul and R&B singer Roberta Flack’s music in January, and quickly became an avid listener of hers. I’ve appreciated her music’s ability to soothe and stir and may have searched up as many versions I could find of her songs because I loved them so much. But, I never thought to learn more about Flack, past her magical voice.
That was until Flack died from cardiac arrest on Monday, February 24 at the age of 88. Learning of this, I’ve been learning about her journey to becoming an influential musician. The more I read, the more I felt an urge to share my honor and celebration of her life with those around me. A part of Flack lives on forever: her authentic music and kind heart. Flack, known for singing songs about love, has left an indelible mark on the way people see music.
Flack’s music touched the hearts of millions — she won a Grammy for Record of the Year back-to-back, becoming the first artist to win the award in consecutive years. But even before her fame, she had the incredible ability to move people.
“I once sang the story of love for sale,” Flack said in a TODAY interview. “I sang it with so much meaning and depth that a Lutheran minister asked me to sing at his church service next Sunday.”
She kept her authenticity as she stepped in the limelight. Where many artists fall back on the same formulas, Flack stayed true to herself.
“My music is inspired thought-by-thought, and feeling-by-feeling. Not note-by-note,” Flack wrote to Ann Powers. “I tell my own story in each song as honestly as I can in the hope that each person can hear it and feel their own story within those feelings.”
Personal resonance connects Flack and her songs, each song a piece of her soul and story.
“I selected ‘I’ll Be Loving You Always’ because I love it,” Flack told TODAY. “My mom and dad used to sing that to each other. It was a waltz; this time I interpreted it as a blues, because that’s where I took it at that moment.”
Flack surpassed boundaries and records. Her top hits in the 1970s charts include “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face,” “Killing Me Softly with His Song,” “Feel Like Makin’ Love,” “Where Is the Love,” and “The Closer I Get to You.”
Her music captures feelings perfectly, weaving her thoughts and emotions into songs. From the carefully chosen vibratos to the voice breaks, crescendos, and slow, mellifluous whispers, Flack speaks to my very soul. Her talent comes with her astounding ability to connect with music. As Flack puts it, “I can feel it with my hands and see it with my eyes.”
Flack’s songs hold incredible power, instantly evoking a scene in my mind. “It Might Be You” makes me feel like I’m finally settling on a couch that perfectly envelops me, and relaxing in its embrace as I listen to lofi video game music in the background. “And So It Goes” is one of my favorites, the acoustic guitar, bass, drums, and backing vocals adding to the dreamy atmosphere. When it plays, I suddenly find myself soaking in a honeyed sunset after a holiday party, sipping on some pina colada, then dreamily slow-dancing with someone close to my heart. Flack’s special ability is one-in-a-billion.
In Flack’s “Back Together Again” (feat. Donny Hathaway) song, the music pops out at me. It is unlike any song she’s sung. With an immediate retro and disco vibe, I feel like I’m in the same room as Flack and Hathaway, jiving to the song as two lovers celebrate their reunion. With claps as beats and upbeat vocals, this song clearly differentiates from the others. Through the combination of the background tracks and backing vocals, Flack is able to ingeniously capture both the intimate, exciting, and funky feeling of rekindling a relationship with someone. In “The Closer I Get To You,” a song nearer to Flack’s typical style, her rich, inviting, and sensuous voice along with frequent vibrato exquisitely accompany the slow, enchanting beat beneath.
“[Flack’s voice is] a molten murmur [that] flexes into a cry as pure as a prayer, heartfelt as a confessional,” The BBC wrote. “It is elegantly tender, almost unbearably intimate.”
Flack captures a mix of hope, hesitance, and sorrow in “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow,” a desperate back-and-forth duet in “Where Is The Love,” a jazzy, warm reminiscence of an old love in “I Wanted It Too,” and the wondrous passion and understanding between two destined lovers in “Killing Me Softly.”
Flack is known for her emotive, genre-blending ballads that spanned R&B, jazz, folk, and pop and contributions to “the birth of quiet storm” — sounds of slow, romantic R&B on airwaves.
“I didn’t try to be a soul singer, a jazz singer, a blues singer — no category,” Flack wrote to The Guardian. “My music is my expression of what I feel and believe in a moment.”
Flack’s filtering of critique and unique approach to music helped her stay resilient as a woman of color in an industry and society that often made it difficult to succeed. She leaves a piece of advice behind: “See every opportunity as golden, and keep your eyes on the prize — yours, not anybody else’s.”
As her time’s only prominent woman producing artist of color, Flack often raised awareness about the male-dominated culture in the record-production process. She said many male employers would turn women away because they assume women “aren’t serious or capable.”
“I am a person who has managed to last because I have chosen to stay true to my own ideals and principles, and true to my own experience,” Flack told the Washington Post in 1989. “I am a Black person who sings the way I do. I know what I am, and I don’t want to — and I shouldn’t have to — change in order to be who I am.”
From a young age, Flack was drawn to music. Her father played the harmonica, and her mother played the piano and organ at their local church. Flack played piano at church starting at age three. Moving to North Carolina, Flack continued to practice — on an old, beat up, upright piano her father found in a junkyard and painted a grassy green for her. She further explored her passion, taking lessons from a revered teacher.
Discovering her precocious piano talent, Flack won a full music scholarship to Howard University, which she started attending at the age of 15. After graduating college, Flack looked for performance opportunities, ultimately asking Henry Yaffe, owner of the nightclub Mr. Henry’s in Washington, D.C.
“Just give me three nights, and I’ll quit teaching,” Flack told Yaffe.
He did — and the rest is history.
From then on, Flack became a visceral interpreter of songs, sharing her sincerity, intimacy, and a quiet fervor with each melody.
In 2022, Flack began battling amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, which rendered her singing voice incapable. With more time, she pursued her long-held dream. Flack released a children’s book the next year named “The Green Piano: How Little Me Found Music,” written with Tonya Bolden. The green piano quickly became an inspiration for young aspiring musicians.
“Find your own ‘green piano’ and practice relentlessly until you find your voice, and a way to put that beautiful music into the world,” Flack writes in her author’s note.
Flack founded the Roberta Flack School of Music at the Hyde Leadership Charter School in the Bronx to provide a free music education program to underprivileged students, then founded the Roberta Flack Foundation. She was also a spokesperson for the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, with her song “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” featured in the organization’s commercial. Her music, along with these contributions, have left a long-lasting imprint in people who have experienced her soulful artistry and authenticity.
The tangibility of her music is clear in her interpretation of Gene McDaniels’ song, “Feel Like Makin’ Love.” One of the lyrics calls music: “a river somewhere that flows through the lives of everyone.”
Flack took pride in creating music she truly resonated with. Bringing everlasting inspiration into the world, her passion and timeless songs is “a river somewhere that flows through the lives of everyone.”
