Jill Sobule, Musician of Same-Sex Anthem ‘I Kissed a Girl,’ Dies at 66

The Washington Post / Brian Murphy

12:34 JST, May 3, 2025

Jill Sobule, a singer and songwriter who found inspiration in social commentary such as a satirical jab at beauty obsessions with “Supermodel” and the hit “I Kissed a Girl” that became a same-sex anthem, died May 1 in a house fire in Woodbury, Minnesota. She was 66.

Her manager, John Porter, said Ms. Sobule was in Minnesota to record a podcast before a planned performance the following day in Denver, her hometown. The cause of the fire in the Minneapolis suburb was not immediately known.

Ms. Sobule (pronounced SO-be-al) developed a folk rock-influenced musical style with lyrics that emphasized wit and subtle observations. She built a niche following in the early 1990s, but back-to-back successes in 1995 brought her national attention.

“Supermodel” was part of the soundtrack to the popular film “Clueless” (1995) starring Alicia Silverstone as a privileged high school social queen. Meanwhile, “I Kissed a Girl” reached the Top 20 of Billboard’s Alternative Airplay chart (then Modern Rock Tracks) – also peaking at No. 67 on Billboard’s Hot 100 – and was celebrated by LGBTQ+ fans as a mainstream victory.

The song tells the story of a woman, who has a boyfriend, weighing her feelings after she kissed a female friend. “We had a drink, we had a smoke/She took off her overcoat,” Ms. Sobule sang. “I kissed a girl/I kissed a girl.”

Ms. Sobule, who described herself as bisexual, said the song did not recount a specific personal experience. Instead, she called it a general representation of the joys and fears of exploring a new path.

“Even though that song felt like kind of a cross to bear at times, ‘I Kissed a Girl’ probably is my biggest success,” she said in a 2018 interview with online journal the Creative Independent. “Not because of sales and not for it being on MTV but because of what it did for people. That feels like a success.”

She later expanded her iconoclastic image with an autobiographical, coming-of-age musical, “F*ck7thGrade,” that premiered off-Broadway in 2022 and recounted her awkward days in middle school and secret same-sex crushes on her friends. Years earlier, Ms. Sobule had challenged the music industry through crowdsourcing for donations to produce a new album, “California Years” (2009), after she was dropped by two record labels.

She became one of the forerunners in using social media as a money-raising tool for her music and as a way to take greater control of her career. She used crowdfunding again in 2018 to help with the production of the album “Nostalgia Kills.”

She said she relished taking a swing at the “the old kind of paradigm, where you’ve always waited for other people to do things.”

Ms. Sobule’s 10 albums, beginning in 1990 with “Things Here Are Different,” delved into issues across the cultural and social spectrum including capital punishment, reproductive rights, Christian nationalism – as well as depression and anorexia nervosa, both of which Ms. Sobule said she had struggled with previously.

After “I Kissed a Girl” was released, some radio stations in the South and Midwest refused to play the song. At one station in Nashville, the song came with a parental warning beforehand. Mostly, though, Ms. Sobule was hailed for the sly humor and simplicity she used in recounting sexual discovery and the complicated emotions that followed.

“She literally created a path for queer people and women in music,” Sarah Kate Ellis, the president of GLAAD, an LGBTQ+ advocacy group, said in a statement. (Ms. Sobule’s “I Kissed a Girl” gained fresh attention in 2008 after pop singer Katy Perry released a different song with the same name.)

Ms. Sobule’s said her musical – with songs and stories and a backup band – was a further attempt to use her life to uplift others. “It’s kind of this universal story of a weirdo growing up,” she told the New York Times in 2022.

In the show, she described being mocked with a homophobic slur and suddenly feeling out of place as her peers began to turn their attention to boys.

“In 6th grade, I was this tomboy, I was a badass, I was the electric guitar player,” she told Playbill. “Suddenly, 7th grade happened, and my friends started wearing makeup, and I didn’t feel like I fit in. I knew early on that there was something different about me.”

Jill Sobule was born in Denver on Jan. 16, 1959. She played guitar in her high school jazz band and, while studying in Madrid during college, she was spotted by a nightclub owner while she and friend performed on the street, according to her accounts.

They received an invitation to play at the club, and Ms. Sobule soon left her studies in political science to pursue music full-time.

Her first album was produced by rock impresario Todd Rundgren, who played guitar on some tracks. Los Angeles Times music critic Chris Willman called the album “as accomplished a debut as you’ll hear this year.” But sales were sluggish, and the record label MCA dropped her.

She was then signed by Atlantic and released “Jill Sobule” in 1995 – with “I Kissed a Girl” – and a follow-up album, “Happy Town,” in 1997. Atlantic did not keep her on contract.

Her 2014 album, “Dottie’s Charms,” was based on a charm bracelet Ms. Sobule had once received as a birthday present and then discovered years later stashed away in “the drawer of forgotten, semi-inappropriate gifts.” She commissioned writers including Jonathan Lethem, David Hajdu and Vendela Vida to craft lyrics based on the charms.

Ms. Sobule performed frequently at Pride events and other gatherings supporting the LGBTQ+ community. “I consider myself an activist, and part of what I do, I believe, is these sorts of things,” she told the Asbury Park Press in 2021.

Survivors include a brother.

Ms. Sobule said her decision to crowdsource funding for albums was given a boost from an overheard comment at a party in Los Angeles. The person remarked that songwriters were done by the time they reached 40.

“That person instantly became my new nemesis,” she recalled. “It was a fuel that I didn’t even know I needed.”