Quotes
So sad to hear of Roberta Flack’s passing. One of the great soul singers of all time. Rest well, Ms. Flack. Your legacy lives on!!!”
R&B singer Jennifer Hudson took to X, writing
My heart just sank!! Our Dear Ms.Roberta Flack has ascended beyond but what beauty she has left us with!! THANK YOU for your effortless, most beautiful gift! THANK YOU for being apart of the soundtrack to the most tender moments in my life! So Grateful for you!” ... Thank You Roberta Flack. Rest In Melody.”
Kelly Rowland also shared a tribute for Flack that read ... Meanwhile, Questlove, the drummer for Roots wrote
I am a black person who sings the way I do. I am not a black person who sounds anything like Aretha Franklin or like Chaka Khan. I shouldn’t have to change in order to be who I am.”
Some critics unfavourably compared her to more visceral contemporaries such as Aretha Franklin, which provoked the retort
I laughed, cried and screamed for more,
he said –She died peacefully surrounded by her family,
the statement from the publicist said
I did a lot of songs that were considered protest songs, a lot of folk music, ... but I protested as a singer with a lot of love."
she saidI love that connection to other artists because we understand music, we live music, it’s our language,
Flack told songwriteruniverse.com in 2020.
I wanted to be successful, a serious all-round musician,
she told The Telegraph in 2015.
We were deeply connected creatively,
Flack told Vibe in 2022, upon the 50th anniversary of the million-selling Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway album
Free to Be ... You and Me.”
Flack sang at the funeral of Jackie Robinson, major league baseball’s first Black player, and was among the many guest performers on the feminist children’s entertainment project created by Marlo Thomas
Her voice touched, tapped, trapped and kicked every emotion I’ve ever known,
McCann said
He was very sensitive, reacting to the things around him, and whatever was inside of him. He was a genius, so he wasn’t satisfied with his own performances, his own output,
Flack told The Washington Post shortly after the tragedy(It ... It’s hard to) be moved, to be moved constantly by your own songs,
Flack told The Associated Press in 2018.We had ‘The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face’ playing as we walked down the aisle at our wedding celebration in August 2021. Such beautiful music. RIP Roberta Flack."
Another penned
Roberta Flack had such heart-achingly beautiful songs. I listened and danced to a LOT of her music in my ballroom days. RIP legend."
One wroteI’m deeply saddened that many of the songs I recorded 50 years ago about civil rights, equal rights, poverty, hunger and suffering in our society are still relevant in 2020,
she told AARP in 2020, acknowledging connections in her music to “the growing economic disparities
One of the hassles of being a Black female musician is that people are always backing you into a corner and telling you to sing soul,
she once told TIMEI was so anxious and so happy, and I still am, ... but it was all a brand-new experience, and I probably sang too many songs.”
she told Philadelphia Weekly decades laterWe are heartbroken that the glorious Roberta Flack passed away this morning, February 24, 2025,
a statement from her spokesperson readWhat I consider myself is a soulful singer, in that I try to sing with all the feeling that I have in my body and my mind. A person with true soul is one who can take anybody’s song and transcend all the flaws, the technique and just make you listen.”
She once told a journalist