Jill Sobule, the singer-songwriter behind songs “Supermodel” and “I Kissed a Girl,” has died at the age of 66.
On Thursday, her team announced that the musician had died at her home during a house fire early in the morning. “Jill Sobule was a force of nature and human rights advocate whose music is woven into our culture,” said her manager John Porter in a press release. “I was having so much fun working with her. I lost a client & a friend today. I hope her music, memory, & legacy continue to live on and inspire others.”
Sobule’s 1995 single, “I Kissed a Girl,” made history as the first openly gay song to reach the Top 20 on Billboard. Throughout her life, Sobule reflected on the significance of the song for the time in which it was released. “[When] I got my record deal and I was sitting in a conference room getting ready to have the first big meeting… they said, ‘We’ve already had Tracy Chapman and Melissa Etheridge. Thank God we finally have a straight, female singer-songwriter.’ It freaked me out,” she told the Philadelphia Gay News in 2021. “When ‘Kissed a Girl’ came out, I didn’t even think it was going to make it onto the record, but it came out and was treated like a novelty. For me, I wanted it out because it was the kind of song I wish I’d heard when I was young.”
Her single “Supermodel” separately made waves as part of the Nineties cult-classic film Clueless, which starred Alicia Silverstone and Paul Rudd. “[That] wasn’t my song, but I made it my own. I added that bridge to the song… I had to add some weird Dadaist gravitas to it,” Sobule told The Toledo Blade in a March interview about the song.
The singer dropped 12 albums throughout her career, and took on a range of topics in her music, including anorexia, reproductive rights, and intolerance. She also released an autobiographical musical titled Fuck 7th Grade, which had four runs in three years. The original cast recording of the show is set to drop June 6, along with a 30th anniversary vinyl of her self-titled album, which featured both “I Kissed a Girl” and “Supermodel.”
“I was fortunate enough to get to know Jill beyond a professional relationship,” said her agent Craig Grossman in a statement. “No one made me laugh more. Her spirit and energy shall be greatly missed within the music community and beyond.”
The singer will be honored during an “informal gathering” hosted by a local radio station host where she was originally set to perform her Jill Sobule presents: Songs From F*ck 7th Grade & More show. A formal memorial is still being planned for this summer, according to a release.
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