Roberta Flack returns with first single in years

Legendary singer Roberta Flack has bounced back from illness by launching her first song since 2011.
The Killing Me Softly with His Song star, 81, premiered her new song Running on Friday (26Oct18), and the track’s meaning is very personal to her, after suffering a stroke in 2016 and collapsing before a star-studded tribute show in New York in April (18).
“The music remains my lifeline,” she told Billboard via email. “And the lyrics for Running speak to where I am now, working to keep going through music.”
In the tune’s chorus, Roberta sings, “And I’ll just keep running/Until my race is done/’Cause if I just keep running/Then I’ve already won.”
The track features at the end of the new documentary 3100: Run and Become, a film chronicling the efforts of participants in the annual Self-Transcendence 3100 Mile Race, known as the longest footrace in the world, and Roberta reveals she wanted to contribute to the project in some way as she is a longtime admirer of late Indian spiritual leader and 3100 Mile Race sponsor, Guru Sri Chinmoy.
“I used to meditate with Guru Chinmoy in the late ’80s and ’90s, read his writings and run with him,” she shared.
Running marks Roberta’s first song release since her cover of The Beatles’ We Can Work It Out in 2011. The track was included as part of her album Let It Be Roberta: Roberta Flack Sings The Beatles, which hit retailers in 2012.