Grammy winner Roberta Flack is unable to sing due to ALS, her rep announced on Monday.
Suzanne Kota said the progressive disease – commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s – has also made it difficult for the 85-year-old to speak.
Flack was the first artist to win Record of the Year at two consecutive Grammys. “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” won in 1973 and “Killing Me Softly With His Song” won in 1974 (it also earned her Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female). She also won a Grammy in 1973 for Best Pop Vocal Performance By A Duo, Group Or Chorus for her collaboration with Donny Hathaway, “Where Is The Love.”
Flack, who has used a wheelchair since she suffered a stroke in 2016, was honoured with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2020.
The R&B singer also had hits like “Feel Like Makin’ Love,” “The Closer I Get To You” (with Hathaway) and “Tonight, I Celebrate My Love” (with Peabo Bryson).
According to her rep, Flack plans to “stay active in her musical and creative pursuits” through her eponymous foundation. “It will take a lot more than ALS to silence this icon,” said Kota.
Flack will publish The Green Piano: How Little Me Found Music, a children’s book co-written by Tonya Bolden, in January.
“I have long dreamed of telling my story to children about that first green piano that my father got for me from the junkyard in the hope that they would be inspired to reach for their dreams,” Flack said, in a release. “I want them to know that dreams can come true with persistence, encouragement from family and friends, and most of all belief in yourself.”
She is also the subject of the documentary Roberta, which premieres Thursday at the DOCNYC film festival and then airs in January on PBS. Flack’s fourth album Killing Me Softly will be reissued to mark its 50th anniversary.