Roberta Flack unable to sing due to diagnosis with motor neurone disease

The Grammy Award-winning singer Roberta Flack, who is best-known for hits like 'Killing Me Softly with His Song' and 'First Time I Ever Saw Your Face', has been diagnosed with the motor neurone disease ALS.

According to a statement from her representatives, her condition "has made it impossible to sing and not easy to speak". But, they added that "it will take a lot more than ALS to silence this icon," who - at age 85 - "plans to stay active in her musical and creative pursuits."

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), which is also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, is a rare neurological disease that primarily affects the nerve cells responsible for controlling voluntary muscle movement. It causes the death of neurons in the brain and spinal cord, which affects people's ability to move, talk and breathe.

There is no cure for ALS, which leads to progressive paralysis and death. The average life expectancy after diagnosis is two to five years.

However, some patients live for years or even decades, such as the famous physicist Stephen Hawking, who lived for over 50 years after his diagnosis at age 21.

Roberta Flack is set to release a children's book in January 2023. In the autobiographical picture book The Green Piano: How Little Me Found Music, the music icon recounts her childhood in a home filled with music and love.

 

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A documentary about her life, American Masters: Roberta Flack, premieres at the DOCNYC film festival in New York as ROBERTA on Thursday (November 17). The film, which provides "an intimate look into Flack’s artistry, life and triumphs over racism and sexism within and outside of the recording industry" features interviews with Reverend Jesse Jackson, Clint Eastwood, Yoko Ono and Angela Davis, among others.

'First Time I Ever Saw Your Face' from Flack's 1969 debut album First Take was personally chosen by Clint Eastwood for his directorial debut Play Misty for Me. The song won Flack a Grammy Award for Record of the Year in 1973.

The following year, she was awarded a Record of the Year award for 'Killing Me Softly' and became the first artist to win the trophy two years in a row.

Over her career, Flack has had several number one hits and produced 20 studio albums. The soul singer has won four Grammys and was honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2020.