I’m sad to report that singer, songwriter and activist Jill Sobule has passed away in a house fire on Friday.
She is credited with performing the first openly gay-themed song that cracked the Billboard Top 20.
Jill Sobule, the groundbreaking singer-songwriter and activist whose 1995 song “I Kissed a Girl” is widely considered the first openly gay-themed song to crack the Billboard Top 20, died in a Minneapolis house fire early Thursday morning, her rep confirmed. She was 66.
Sobule’s unusually diverse three-decade/12-album career included that song as well as “Supermodel” from the film “Clueless” and, more recently, the Drama Desk-nominated autobiographical musical “Fuck 7th Grade,” which enjoyed four theatrical runs in three years. The original cast recording of the show is set to be released on June 6, alongside a special 30th anniversary reissue of her self-titled album, which features “I Kissed a Girl” and “Supermodel.”
Sobule was a progressive to the core and sang at the closing of Netroots Nation in 2011.
