Andra Day honored Roberta Flack with a beautiful tribute performance of “Killing Me Softly With His Song” at the 2025 BET Awards on Monday night (June 9).
Accompanied by a small string section and a few backup singers, Day’s lilting vocals echoed throughout the Peacock Theater at L.A. Live for her affecting cover. “Andra Day singing a Roberta Flack tribute? Ohhhh BET played NO games this year,” one person wrote on X, while someone else insisted to “put it in my veins!!!!”
“Killing Me Softly With His Song” became Flack’s second No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1973 and won record of the year and best pop vocal performance, female at the 1974 Grammy Awards. The Fugees included their own rendition of “Killing Me Softly” on their 1996 album The Score, and the hit single won a Grammy in 1997 for best R&B performance by a duo or group with vocal while the parent album won the award for best rap album.
The legendary singer and pianist died in February, and according to a statement from her spokesperson, she “died peacefully surrounded by her family.”
The “in memoriam” tribute also featured former Isley Brothers member Chris Jasper, The Notorious B.I.G.’s mother Voletta Wallace, hip-hop journalist and filmmaker Sacha Jenkins, Kool & the Gang hype man Michael Sumler, Tony! Toni! Toné! founding member D’Wayne Wiggins, The Spinners lead singer John Edwards and more.
Earlier in the evening, Lucky Daye, Luke James and Miles Caton from Sinners performed “The Secret Garden (Sweet Seduction Suite)” during the Quincy Jones tribute.