Multiple Grammy winner Roberta Flack
She can no longer sing because of a serious mental illness
Roberta Flack at the 2020 Grammy Awards.
© imago/UPI Photo
Roberta Flack suffers from the severe nervous disease ALS. The ‘Killing Me Softly With His Song’ singer can’t sing anymore.
Roberta Flack (85) suffers from the nervous disease ALS. The illness made it “impossible to sing and not easy to speak”, said a spokesman for the singer, according to media reports.
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is a rapidly progressive disease of the central nervous system. The nerve cells that are responsible for moving muscles gradually die off. The astrophysicist Stephen Hawking (1942-2018) also suffered from ALS.
“But it takes a lot more than ALS to silence this icon,” Flack’s rep continued. She plans to continue her musical career and her creative output despite the illness. The singer plans to publish a children’s book next year. This week the documentary “Roberta” about her life celebrates its premiere at the Documentary Film Festival in New York.
Roberto Flack: A Grammy double hit that is still unique today
Roberta Flack was the first and, to date, only performer to win two consecutive Grammy Awards for Best Recording: in 1973 for “The First Time I Ever Saw Your Face” and in 1974 for “Killing Me Softly with His Song”.
In 2016, the music teacher suffered a stroke. Two years later, she announced that she would no longer perform live.