UNLESS YOU'RE A fan, you could be forgiven for thinking Roberta Flack is just another old-time crooner whose music appeals to sentimental couples holding cigarette lighters and swaying to the music.
Her Valentine's Day concert, Tonight We Celebrate Our Love, could be yet one more in the line of corny acts such as Air Supply - with whom Hong Kong has had a long-running love affair, even though their popularity has waned elsewhere - and the superannuated Sting.
But for anyone who appreciates soul - true soul, rather than the new-wave Joss Stones or Alicia Keys of the pop world - 66-year-old Flack is one of the genre's classiest artists.
Her trademark songs - Where Is the Love?, Killing Me Softly with His Song and Feel Like Makin' Love - sound as finely measured today as they did when they were hits 30 years ago. Known for her cool, almost dispassionate delivery, Flack has been on the scene since her slow-tempo single The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face was picked up by Clint Eastwood as the soundtrack for the first film he directed, Play Misty For Me. The single also featured on Flack's debut album, First Take (1971), that won her a Grammy for record of the year in 1972.
Although she's been singing since the 1960s, Flack has failed to make much of a commercial impact in recent years and her music veered off course in the 80s when she released below-par duets such as Tonight, I Celebrate My Love, with long-time collaborator Peabo Bryson, and Set the Night to Music, with Maxi Priest. Her renaissance came about when US R&B band The Fugees had a hit with their cover of Killing Me Softly in 1996.
'It helped reintroduce what I started in the 70s to a new and younger generation,' she says from Jamaica, where she's performing at a jazz festival.
'Any time I introduce myself to a new audience and open their ears to pure music, that's a great thing,' she says. 'And since that time I've maintained friendships and worked on several projects with both Lauryn Hill and Wyclef Jean [of The Fugees].'