Roberta Flack, a Grammy-winning artist, will no longer be able to sing because she has amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS. Flack’s manager, Suzanne Koga, claims that the sickness has made it impossible for her to sing and talk. Flack had a stroke in 2016, but she survived and was hospitalized overnight for monitoring. In April 2018, she performed onstage at the Apollo Theater for a fundraiser for the Jazz Foundation of America, when she fell unwell, departed the stage, and was taken to Harlem Hospital Center.
Following her stroke in 2016, she told the Associated Press that she wanted her songs to be remembered as masterpieces rather than old successes. She said,
“I could easily perform any number of songs that I’ve recorded over the years, but I’m going to choose ones that affect me.” That’s difficult to accomplish. To be stirred, to be continually affected by your own tunes.”
A documentary about her childhood is set to debut in New York next week, and she plans to release a children’s book in January based on her first piano, which her father saved from a junkyard.
According to the press, despite her illness, Flack intends to continue her musical and artistic endeavors via her Roberta Flack Foundation.
Roberta Flack, the singer whose smash hits like “Killing Me Softly With His Song” made her among the most recognizable voices of the 1970s, has been diagnosed with ALS and can no longer sing, her publicist said in a statement. https://t.co/ZJM4Sj6zMM
— The New York Times (@nytimes) November 15, 2022
What exactly is amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)? Roberta Flack’s health problem is discussed
ALS is a degenerative nervous system illness that affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord, resulting in muscular control loss. The disease’s etiology is unclear, however, some think it is hereditary. The condition begins with twitching muscles, limb weakness, or slurred speech. It also has an effect on muscular control, which is necessary for moving, speaking, eating, and breathing.
Tripping and falling, weakness in the legs, feet, and ankles, hand weakness or clumsiness, problems swallowing, muscular cramps, and twitching in the arms, shoulders, and tongue, inappropriate sobbing, laughing or yawning, and cognitive and behavioral abnormalities are common indications and symptoms. It generally begins in the hands, feet, or limbs and extends to other regions of the body. Nerve cells are gradually damaged, weakening muscles and interfering with eating, swallowing, speaking, and breathing. Heredity, age, gender, and genetics are all risk factors for the condition.
Smoking, exposure to environmental toxins, and military duty may all cause ALS. This may lead to difficulties such as trouble breathing, speaking, or eating, as well as the development of dementia.
All About Roberta Flack
Roberta Flack’s hits include The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face, Killing Me Softly with His Song, Feel Like Makin’ Love, The Closer I Get to You, and more. Flack has been recognized for her contribution to the quiet storm, a subgenre of modern R&B that includes adaptations of songs by composers such as Leonard Cohen and the Beatles.
She won a Grammy for Record of the Year in 1973 for The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face and again in 1974 for Killing Me Softly with His Song.
