Jill Sobule, “I Kissed a Girl” Singer And Queer Music Pioneer, Dies At 66 In House Fire
Jill Sobule broke barriers for LGBTQ+ musicians long before it was mainstream — and did it with wit, heart, and an electric guitar.
Jill Sobule, the singer-songwriter best known for her 1995 hit “I Kissed a Girl,” died Thursday morning in a house fire in suburban Minnesota. She was 66.
According to officials, firefighters responded around 5:30 a.m. to a home in Woodbury, just outside the Twin Cities, where Sobule was staying with friends. She had been rehearsing for a performance of her one-woman autobiographical show, Fck 7th Grade*, at the Swallow Hill Music Festival in her hometown of Denver.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation.
A Queer Pop Trailblazer
Sobule’s “I Kissed a Girl,” released 13 years before Katy Perry’s unrelated hit of the same name, was one of the first openly queer songs to reach the Billboard Top 20. Backed by a quirky folk-pop sensibility and a mischievous video, the song helped kick open doors for LGBTQ+ visibility in mainstream music.
“I guess if I had to pinpoint my sexual orientation — which I hate to do — then bisexuality would come the closest,” Sobule told The Advocate in 1996. “I believe there’s a whole spectrum of sexuality.”
GLAAD President Sarah Kate Ellis praised Sobule’s legacy in a statement:
“Jill Sobule wasn’t just a trailblazer in music — she was a beacon for queer artists… That courage helped pave the way for today’s artists like Brandi Carlile, Tegan and Sara, Lil Nas X, Sam Smith, Adam Lambert, and so many others.”
Beyond the Hit: A Career of Bold, Smart, Emotional Songwriting
While best known for her self-titled 1995 album, which also included the rebellious track “Supermodel” from the Clueless soundtrack, Sobule released 12 albums across her 30-year career. Her lyrics were intimate, politically sharp, and often laced with biting wit.
She wrote about everything from dumb boyfriends and body image to Alzheimer’s and the death penalty. She was also one of the first independent artists to use crowdfunding to produce albums.
“People call me a one-hit wonder,” she joked to The New York Times in 2022. “And I say, ‘Wait a second, I’m a two-hit wonder!’”
Related: 32 Flavors Of Lesbianism: The Gayest Songs Of The ’90s
Fck 7th Grade*: Turning Teenage Anguish into Art
In recent years, Sobule turned her middle-school trauma into art with her critically acclaimed musical Fck 7th Grade*, which debuted off-Broadway in 2022 and earned a Drama Desk nomination. The show was inspired by her own experiences feeling alienated and queer in a world that didn’t know what to do with girls like her.
“Suddenly, 7th grade happened, and my friends started wearing makeup and I didn’t feel like I fit in,” she told Playbill in 2023. “I knew early on that there was something different about me; that I had crushes on my friends, and that wasn’t the ‘right thing.’”
A Community in Mourning
News of Sobule’s death sent ripples through both the queer and music communities.
“She ALWAYS showed up and showed out… Her song ‘I Kissed a Girl’ blew the doors open for queer folk,” wrote actor and collaborator Sarah Thyre.
Margaret Cho also expressed her grief on Instagram:
“This is not real to me… I am in shock and cannot process this. #restinpower.”
Her manager, John Porter, remembered her as “a force of nature and human rights advocate whose music is woven into our culture.”
Looking Ahead
Sobule’s legacy lives on in her music and in a new generation of artists unafraid to write their truth. A 30th-anniversary reissue of her self-titled album, featuring “I Kissed a Girl” and “Supermodel,” will be released posthumously on June 6, along with the original cast recording of Fck 7th Grade*.
A free community gathering will be held Friday night at Swallow Hill Music’s Tuft Theater in Denver to honor her memory. A formal memorial is planned for later this summer.
