November 20, 2025
Roberts has previously created films about singers Gloria Gaynor and Mahalia Jackson.
Thanks to Good Morning America host Robin Roberts, the life story of singer-songwriter Roberta Flack is headed to the big screen.
Roberts’ production company, Rock’n Robin Productions, has secured the rights to Flack’s life story and is creating a scripted film and a documentary about the singer’s life and career, which spanned nearly six decades. Roberts and her team are working with Flack’s former managers, Suzanne Mina Koga and Joan Martin, on both projects.
“Roberta was a trailblazer–powerful and purposeful with her music and intention. From the first note of every song, you feel Roberta’s tender heart and powerful soul through the microphone,” Roberts told Deadline. “She taught us that the softest voice can carry the deepest truth. It’s an honor to help share her remarkable life and legacy with a new generation, as her music continues to move and inspire the world.”
The North Carolina native, a classically trained pianist, received a music scholarship to attend Howard University at age 15. While performing at a nightclub in D.C., jazz musician Les McCann signed her to Atlantic Records in 1968.
The following year, Flack released her debut album, First Take, which reached number one on both the Billboard albums chart and the Billboard R&B chart. The album’s breakout single, “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face,” topped the Billboard Year-End Hot 100 singles of 1972.
The singer teamed up with Donny Hathaway for a duet album in 1972. The single “Where Is the Love” earned the artists a Grammy for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals in 1973.
Flack won Record of the Year in 1974 for “Killing Me Softly,” the hit single from the album of the same name. Lauryn Hill later breathed new life into the classic with her now-iconic uptempo rendition on the 1996 Fugees’ album The Score.
The “Feel Like Making Love” singer died in February due to complications from Lou Gehrig’s Disease. She was 88. Rock’n Robin Productions is also behind projects such as the documentaries A King Like Me and Hurricane Katrina: 20 Years After the Storm.
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