Roberta Flack - "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face"

In honor of Black History Month all the posts for this month will feature artists of color.

Roberta Cleopatra Flack is an American soul singer. She is known for her #1 singles "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face", "Killing Me Softly with His Song" and "Feel Like Makin' Love", and for "Where Is the Love" and "The Closer I Get to You", two of her many duets with Donny Hathaway.

Flack was the first, and remains the only, solo artist to win the Grammy Award for Record of the Year on two consecutive years: "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" won at the 1973 Grammys as did "Killing Me Softly with His Song" at the 1974 Grammys.

Flack's minimalist, classically trained approach to her songs was seen by a number of critics as lacking in grit and uncharacteristic of soul music. According to music scholar Eric Weisbard, her work was regularly described with the adjectives "boring", "depressing", "lifeless", "studied", and "calculated"; AllMusic's Steve Huey said it has been called "classy, urbane, reserved, smooth, and sophisticated". In 1971, Village Voice critic Robert Christgau reported that "Flack is generally regarded as the most significant new black woman singer since Aretha Franklin, and at moments she sounds kind, intelligent, and very likable. But she often exhibits the gratuitous gentility you'd expect of someone who says 'between you and I.'"

The last time I wrote about Roberta was in 2018, and what wild difference a few years can make. Previously I wrote:

“Because I have to believe that no matter how many times a heart is broken, no matter how many times it's been trampled and bruised, no matter how often it has been discarded and tossed to the curb by careless hands, that it is never to shattered to be repaired, recycled, and sent back into the ring for another round in this game called love. 

I know I haven't found you yet, but I'm here, learning patience, and looking for you. Hurry if you can, but I'll be here regardless, waiting to be your man. ‘

This year, I’m the luckiest I’ve ever been, and in the healthiest relationship I’ve ever had, more grateful than I knew I could be. Apparently patience is a virtue learned over time. I’m so glad my heart was not so broken as to not be able to be sent back in the ring.

So today, with gratitude around every corner, I choose Roberta Flack's "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" as my, thank you for today, each little gift, foster the spark of love anyplace you can find it, song for an, open your heart even when it’s scary, never stop hoping, Love is worth living for, Friday, Valentine's Day. 

Happy Valentine's Day everyone, here's wishing you Love.