Jill Sobule, the pop artist best known for “I Kissed a Girl” and other songs including “Supermodel,” has died in a house fire. She was 66.
According to local news reports, firefighters in responded to call at about 5:30 a.m. on Thursday at a house in Woodbury, Minnesota, which was fully engulfed in flames upon arrival. The cause of the fire is under investigation.
“Jill Sobule was a force of nature and human rights advocate whose music is woven into our culture,” her manager John Porter said in a statement shared with Rolling Stone. “I was having so much fun working with her. I lost a client and a friend today. I hope her music, memory and legacy continue to live on and inspire others.”
Born Jan. 16, 1959 in Denver, Colorado, Sobule released her Todd Rundgren-produced debut album Things Here Are Different in 1990. Other albums include Happy Town (1997), Pink Pearl (2000), Underdog Victorious (2004), California Years (2009), Dottie’s Charm (2014) and Nostalgia Kills (2018).
Sobule became popular for her self-titled second album in 1995, which featured the lesbian anthem ‘I Kissed a Girl’, the first gay-themed song to make it to the Billboard Top 20, and the bop ‘Supermodel’, which appeared that year in the seminal teen film Clueless.
Composing music for film and television, Sobule’s work appeared in Nickelodeon’s Unfabulous, and she acted and performed her music in the 2004 film Mind the Gap.
Sobule’s death comes ahead of the June 6 release of the original cast recording for her 2023 Off-Broadway musical memoir F*ck7thGrade, coinciding with the 30th anniversary of her self-titled album.
Explaining that she’s “been known to do topical and political songs” in her career, Sobule said while touring with The Fixx last month, “I’m certainly not used to tiptoeing around. So it’s interesting and even wonderful to figure out what you can get away with and how you can still relate to people who disagree with you.”
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