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Roberta Cleopatra Flack (born February 10, 1937) is an American singer who topped the Billboard charts with the No. 1 singles 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, the latter two duets with Donny Hathaway. Flack influenced the subgenre of contemporary R&B called quiet storm, and interpreted songs by songwriters such as Leonard Cohen and members of the Beatles.
Flack was the first artist to win the Grammy Award for Record of the Year in two consecutive years: The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face won in 1973 and Killing Me Softly with His Song won in 1974.
More information: Roberta Flack
Flack was born in Black Mountain, North Carolina, to parents Laron Flack, a Veterans Administration draftsman, and Irene (née Council) Flack a church organist, on February 10, 1937 (some sources have cited 1939 but the 1940 Census gives Roberta's age as 3 years old). She grew up in Arlington, Virginia.
Growing up in a large, musical family, she often accompanied the choir of Lomax African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church by playing hymns and spirituals on piano, but she also enjoyed going to the Baptist church down the street to listen to contemporary gospel music including songs performed by Mahalia Jackson and Sam Cooke.
When Flack was nine, she started taking an interest in playing the piano. During her early teens, Flack excelled at classical piano and Howard University awarded her a full music scholarship.
By age 15, she entered Howard University, making her one of the youngest students ever to enroll there. She eventually changed her major from piano to voice and became an assistant conductor of the university choir. Her direction of a production of Aida received a standing ovation from the Howard University faculty.
Flack became a student teacher at a school near Chevy Chase, Maryland. She graduated from Howard University at 19 and began graduate studies in music, but the sudden death of her father forced her to take a job teaching music and English in Farmville, North Carolina.
Before becoming a professional singer-songwriter, Flack returned to Washington, D.C. and taught at Banneker, Browne, and Rabaut Junior High Schools. She also taught private piano lessons out of her home on Euclid Street, NW in the city. During that time, her music career began to take shape on evenings and weekends in D.C. area night spots.
Les McCann discovered Flack singing and playing jazz in a D.C. nightclub. He later said on the liner notes of what would be her first album First Take noted below, Her voice touched, tapped, trapped, and kicked every emotion I've ever known. I laughed, cried, and screamed for more... she alone had the voice.
On her own Flack scored her second No. 1 hit in 1973, Killing Me Softly with His Song written by Charles Fox, Norman Gimbel and Lori Lieberman. It was awarded both Record of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female at the 1974 Grammy Awards.
In 1999, a star with Flack's name was placed on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In the same year, she gave a concert tour in South Africa; the final performance was attended by President Nelson Mandela.
In 2010, she appeared on the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards, singing a duet of Where Is The Love with Maxwell.
Flack's minimalist, classically trained approach to her songs was seen by a number of critics as lacking in grit and uncharacteristic of soul music. According to music scholar Jason King, her work was regularly described with the adjectives boring, depressing, lifeless, studied, and calculated; in contrast, AllMusic's Steve Huey said it has been called classy, urbane, reserved, smooth, and sophisticated.
More information: Twitter-Roberta Flack
who sell material for people to hear and absorb,
it's important that we use that voice wisely.
Roberta Flack
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