Jill Sobule, Singer of ‘I Kissed a Girl,’ Dies in House Fire

[ad_1] Jill Sobule, the singer and songwriter whose homosexual anthem “I Kissed a Woman” and hit “Supermodel,” heard within the film “Clueless,” had been adopted by three many years of touring, advocacy and a one-woman musical, died on Thursday morning in a home fireplace in Woodbury, Minn. She was 66.

Her dying was introduced by her publicist, David Elkin.

The Public Security Division in Woodbury, a suburb of St. Paul, stated that firefighters had responded at 5:30 a.m. to a report {that a} home was engulfed in flames. The householders stated one individual was presumably nonetheless inside. The division stated that firefighters discovered the physique of a lady in her 60s inside the home. The Woodbury Police Division confirmed that the sufferer was Ms. Sobule.

The reason for the hearth remains to be underneath lively investigation.

Ms. Sobule was scheduled to carry out songs from her autobiographical one-woman musical, “F*ck7thGrade,” on Friday at Swallow Hill Music, a venue in her hometown, Denver, stated Mr. Elkin stated, who added that she was staying with pals in Minnesota whereas she rehearsed for the musical.

A free casual gathering will probably be held in Ms. Sobule’s honor as an alternative.

On her second album, launched in 1995 known as merely “Jill Sobule,” Ms. Sobule, who was bisexual, featured “I Kissed a Woman,” which tells the story of a lady who kisses a feminine good friend:

I kissed a girlHer lips had been candy.She was similar to kissing me.Kissed a woman, received’t change the worldBut I’m so gladI kissed a woman!

The track got here out when it was “dicey” to be a queer musician, Ms. Sobule as soon as recalled. Nevertheless it broke into the mainstream, making its approach onto the Billboard charts. It reached the Prime 20 of the journal’s Trendy Rock Tracks chart, then often called the Various Airplay chart, and was the primary track with an overtly homosexual theme to succeed in Prime 20 of any Billboard chart. (It additionally reached No. 67 on the Scorching 100 singles chart.)

“Supermodel,” a rebellious rock track from the identical album, was included on the soundtrack of the romantic comedy “Clueless” and additional cemented Ms. Sobule’s reputation — though, in contrast to many of the songs she recorded, she didn’t write it.

“Folks name me a one-hit marvel,” Ms. Sobule stated in a 2022 interview with The New York Instances. “And I say, ‘Wait a second, I’m a two-hit marvel!’”

Her subsequent albums had been creatively daring and tough to pigeonhole and didn't attain the identical degree of mainstream success. However they'd a loyal following and acquired constructive evaluations.

“Now she sings about dumb boyfriends, weight-obsessed girls, Alzheimer’s illness and the failings of an extended record of celebrated individuals,” Robbie Woliver wrote in The Instances in 2000. “With a depraved wit and pliant facility for candor, Ms. Sobule is an artist whose expertise goes effectively past whom she kisses.”

Jill Susan Sobule was born on Jan. 29, 1959, in Denver to Marvin Lee Sobule, a veterinarian, and Elaine (Kramish) Sobule, a musician (who later remarried and was often called Elaine Dillon).She joked that when she was rising up, her solely queer function fashions had been Miss Jane Hathaway, the very correct secretary performed by Nancy Kulp on the sitcom “The Beverly Hillbillies,” and her fitness center trainer, “who regarded like Pete Rose.”

A long time later, she wrote a musical, which she known as “type of this common story of a weirdo rising up,” during which she sang concerning the frustrations she skilled in center college. She recalled being known as a homophobic slur, feeling misplaced among the many different ladies and having an unrequited crush on a woman.

She started to show expertise on the guitar within the eighth grade, and he or she finally dropped out of faculty to give attention to music. Her recording profession started in 1990, when she launched the album “Issues Right here Are Totally different.” A single from the album, “Too Cool to Fall in Love,” acquired some radio play.

5 years later, “Jill Sobule,” her second album, catapulted her profession to larger heights.

“I Kissed a Woman” made its approach again into headlines once more in 2008, when Katy Perry launched a track with the identical identify that achieved a lot larger success. In a single interview, Ms. Sobule later recalled being “jealous” when Ms. Perry used the title. In one other interview, with Leisure Weekly in 2008, she stated, “I don’t really feel valuable concerning the title, however I’ve gotten tons of emails from aggravated followers.” She added: “Katy Perry’s track is a type of catchy get together track, though I'll admit that I do smile when a critique mentions my model in a extra favorable gentle. Is that flawed?”

Ms. Sobule’s survivors embrace her brother, James.

Along with performing, Ms. Sobule was outspoken about quite a lot of political and cultural matters, together with the dying penalty, anorexia, replica and, maybe most notably, L.G.B.T.Q. points.

“She actually created a path for queer individuals and ladies in music,” Sarah Kate Ellis, the president of the L.G.B.T.Q. advocacy group GLAAD, stated in an announcement.

Interviewed by The Instances in 2022 about her musical, Ms. Sobule emphasised that her objective was to succeed in a broad viewers of people that felt like outcasts.

“We needed to make it possible for the present wasn’t only for individuals eager about my profession as a result of most individuals may give a [expletive],” she stated. “I’m not that well-known. It’s type of this common story of a weirdo rising up.”