Flack’s publicist announced her death without citing a cause.
“She died peacefully surrounded by her family,“ the statement from the publicist said.
Her exceptional talent was key to the “quiet storm” radio form of smooth, sensuous slow jams that popularized R&B and influenced its later aesthetics.
“If everybody said I sounded like one person, I’d worry. But when they say I sound like them all, I know I’ve got my own style.”
‘A lot of love’
Her large, musical family had a penchant for gospel, and she took up the piano in her youth, exhibiting a virtuosity that ultimately earned her a music scholarship to Washington’s Howard University at just 15.
“This was my first piano and was the instrument in which I found my expression and inspiration as a young person.”
Flack signed at Atlantic Records, launching a recording career at the relatively late age of 32.
The song earned her the Grammy for Record of the Year in 1972, a prize which she took home at the following ceremony as well for “Killing Me Softly With His Song,“ thus becoming the first artist ever to win the honor two years in a row.
She performed her version at a show in which she opened for the legendary music tastemaker Quincy Jones, who, blown away by her rendition, told Flack not to publicly perform the song again until she had recorded it and made it her own.
A remixed rendition of “Killing Me Softly” was released in 1996 by the Fugees, with Lauryn Hill on lead vocals, bringing Flack a resurgence as it soared to top charts worldwide and scored another Grammy.
Flack’s many accolades included a lifetime achievement honor from the Recording Academy in 2020.
She has described growing up “at a time ‘Black’ was the most derogatory word you could use. I went through the civil rights movement. I learned, long after leaving Black Mountain, that being Black was a positive thing, as all of us did, the most positive thing we could be.”
“I did a lot of songs that were considered protest songs, a lot of folk music,“ she said, “but I protested as a singer with a lot of love.”
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