Roberta Flack’s diagnosis has enabled her to sing.
Reports said on Monday that Grammy-winning Roberta Flack no longer sings due to ALS, often known as Lou Gehrig’s illness. Flack’s manager Suzanne Koga, the sickness “has rendered it hard to sing and not easy to speak.”
The diagnosis of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis was made public just days before “Roberta,” a feature-length documentary that will screen at the DOCNYC film festival on Thursday, had its debut.
Killing Me Softly With His Song” and “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” are two of Roberta Flack’s well-known songs; the latter propelled her to fame after Clint Eastwood used it as the soundtrack for a passionate scene in his 1971 film “Play Misty for Me.”
The 85-year-old Grammy-winning singer and pianist “plans to stay active in her musical and creative pursuits” through her eponymous foundation and other means, according to the press release. The publishing of the book and the television premiere of the documentary at the beginning of 2023, also marks the reissue of her fourth album, “Killing Me Softly,” in honor of its 50th anniversary. Atlantic Records, the company she was signed to for the first three decades of her career, is also commemorating its 75th birthday.
