Roberta Flack, one of the most beloved R&B singers of the 1970s, died on Monday in Manhattan. She had just turned 88 this February.
According to Suzanne Koga, her manager and friend, Flack died from cardiac arrest in route to a hospital. In 2022, Flack revealed that she had been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS. She did not perform onstage again following that announcement.
Born in North Carolina and raised in Arlington, Virginia, the singer had pursued a music career at a young age. Winning a scholarship to Howard University at just 15, she was initially seeking to be a classical pianist, all before her professors discouraged her from attempting to break into what at the time was a mostly white-controlled genre.
Following graduation, Flack became a school teacher in D.C. and North Carolina while moonlighting in clubs, both as a pianist and singer. The moonlighting lead to a contract with Atlantic Records, who released her debut album, First Take, in 1969.
Flack’s career took an upward turn the album, but took a rocket shot to stardom when Clint Eastwood used her cover of Ewan MacColl’s “The First Time I Ever Saw Your Face” in his 1971 movie “Play Misty For Me.”
Along with “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face,” Flack topped the charts during her reign and beyond with hits like “Killing Me Softly,” “Feel Like Makin’ Love,” “Where Is The Love” and “The Closer I Get To You.”
Early on in her career, Flack demonstrated that she understood love in all forms by continuously celebrating the LGBTQ+ community through her music. Her first exposure to our community occurred while performing at Mr. Henry’s Opera Restaurant in DC’s Georgetown in the 1970s. In an interview from 1979, Flack said that the restaurant was “basically an underground place frequented by a lot of gay people” which “opened up a whole new world” for her.
From that point, Flack would regularly dedicate a portion of her music to the queer community, confirming that the 1969 cover “Ballad of the Sad Young Men” “was all gay.” She also sang the theme song to the film “Making Love,” which had been controversial during the early 1980s for depicting a relationship between two men.
In an interview with LGBTQ+ media in the early 2000s and posted to her Facebook account, she recalled her experience with the song. “Reporters asked me if I was afraid to be involved with a gay film. Me? Afraid of singing a song about love? Never. I was so proud when that song charted in the top 40. People did not know that the song was about two men in love – and they loved it anyway! Love is love. Between two men, between two women, between two people. That’s what I’ve always believed. Love is universal, just like music.”
Most recently, one of Flack’s songs was featured on the soundtrack of FX’s queer TV series “Pose.” Taking to Instagram to celebrate the inclusion, Flack wrote “I am thrilled to be featured in the soundtrack of a show that spotlights the triumphs and trials of ‘80s queer and trans communities and culture. #Love is beautiful in all forms!”