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Pioneering Dutch DJ Ben Liebrand Reworks Roberta Flack’s Iconic Hit, “Killing Me Softly with His Song”

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@roberta-flack
 

Pioneering Dutch DJ Ben Liebrand

Reworks Roberta Flack’s Iconic Hit,

“Killing Me Softly with His Song,”

For the Dancefloor

 

Rhino Records Releases Single

On Spotify, YouTube Music, Pandora, & Deezer

Roberta Flack, Ben Liebrand – Killing Me Softly With His Song (Ben Liebrand Rework)
 
NEW YORK — “Brilliant,” “unexpected,” and “Nothing beats the original, but this is great for the club” are just a few of the fan praises of the recently released “Killing Me Softly with His Song (Ben Liebrand Rework)” on Rhino Records.
 
Liebrand says the dance remix started out as an idea for his weekly Minimix radio show. “It found its way to Rhino Records after which the mix underwent further revisions and refinements. The programmed bass line was replaced by a live bass line performed by Sascha Liebrand. Anthony Barboza’s iconic photo was licensed, which was the basis for the glowing artwork of this release,” he says.
 
           The song is available now on Spotify, YouTube Music, Pandora, & Deezer here: https://rhino.lnk.to/KMSBL.
 
Ben Liebrand is recognized as one of the European pioneers in the DJ, dance music, and remixing world. Among his notable remixes are tracks by Phil Collins, Salt-N-Pepa, TLC, Sting, Bill Withers, the Doobie Brothers, and many more. His early mixes inspired an entire generation of DJs. Armin van Buuren, Olaf Basoski, Ferry Corsten, DJ Dano and Tiësto mention him as their main inspiration to become a DJ. The Golden Harp, received at the Buma Awards in 2020, acknowledges Liebrand’s contribution and influence on the Dutch Music industry.
 
Along with spinning live (on four decks) around the world, he has also released dozens of records and has been a mainstay on international radio. Liebrand was the first DJ to have a non-stop mixed radio show on Dutch National Radio in 1983, called In The Mix. The show still runs each Saturday on Radio 10. The Minimix, a short mix that has yielded remix hits for Sting, Phil Collins, and Bill Withers, runs during the Gerard Ekdom morning show each Friday. In the House is another show, exploring the latest house music and featuring many mashups, that has been running since 2019.
 
Of course, Liebrand’s remix isn’t the first reworking of “Killing Me Softly.” The song was most famously covered by the Fugees in 1996, which hit No. 1 in 20 countries and won the 1997 GRAMMY for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal. It was also covered by Johnny Mathis, Perry Como, and Luther Vandross, among others, and has been sampled by Mariah Carey, French Montana, Baby Keem, and others.
 
Roberta Flack – © Jeri Jones Photography
Flack’s version of the song is the most iconic. In 1973, it became a No. 1 hit in the United States, Australia, and Canada and earned her the 1973 GRAMMY Award for Record of the Year and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. In 1999, her version was inducted into the GRAMMY Hall of Fame. It ranks on Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. In October 2023, Billboard ranked “Killing Me Softly” among the “500 Best Pop Songs of All Time.”
 
About Roberta Flack:
GRAMMY Lifetime Achievement Award recipient Roberta Flack is the first solo artist to win the GRAMMY Award for Record of the Year for two consecutive years for her #1 single “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” in 1973, which also won her the Song of the Year GRAMMY, and “Killing Me Softly with His Song” in 1974 which topped the charts for five weeks. Flack is also known worldwide for songs “Feel Like Makin’ Love,” her hit duets with Donny Hathaway “Where Is the Love” and “The Closer I Get to You,” “Tonight I Celebrate My Love” (Peabo Bryson), and “Set the Night to Music” (Maxi Priest). In 2018, Flack was given the prestigious Clark and Gwen Terry Courage Award from the Jazz Foundation of America, and in 2017 was presented with the Town Hall Friend of the Arts Award and the Black Girls Rock Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2023, she received the Berklee College Honorary Doctorate and released the children’s book, “The Green Piano: How Little Me Found Music” via Random House. Additionally, her Roberta Flack Foundation gives grants to inspiring creatives. She is considered one of the greatest songstresses of our time, effortlessly traversing a broad musical landscape over the years from pop to soul to folk to jazz with a voice the BBC describes as “a molten murmur [that] flexes into a cry as pure as a prayer, heartfelt as a confessional. It is elegantly tender, almost unbearably intimate.”
 
For more information on Roberta Flack, please visit…
 
Official website: www.RobertaFlack.com
 
For more information on Ben Liebrand, please visit…
 
Official website: www.liebrand.com/
 
 
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