Jill Sobule, ‘I Kissed a Girl’ Singer, Dies in House Fire at 66

Jill Sobule, the groundbreaking singer-songwriter of the 1995 hit song “I Kissed a Girl,” has died in a house fire in Minneapolis, her representative confirmed to Variety. She was 66.

“Jill Sobule was a force of nature and human rights advocate whose music is woven into our culture,” her manager, John Porter, said in a statement to the outlet. “I was having so much fun working with her. I lost a client and a friend today. I hope her music, memory, & legacy continue to live on and inspire others.” 

“I Kissed a Girl” is widely regarded as the first openly lesbian pop song to peak in the Billboard top 20. The folk-pop song paved the way for countless future LGBTQ+ pop stars to be open about their sexuality within their songwriting and find continued mainstream success.

Sobule’s management and fellow artists mourned her death by recognizing her dedication to progressive activism and her musical talent. Her agent Craig Grossman of Black Oak Artists, said in a statement to Rolling Stone, “I was fortunate enough to get to know Jill beyond a professional relationship. No one made me laugh more. Her spirit and energy shall be greatly missed within the music community and beyond.”

“This one hits hard. Jill Sobule was an amazing, generous artist who lent her time and talent to abortion rights and other progressive causes,” Sarah Thyre wrote on Instagram about her experience collaborating with Sobule.

Thyre continued, “She ALWAYS showed up and showed out. She composed the original theme song for my and @susanorlean’s ‘Crybabies’ podcast and participated in my and @rachellichtman’s Bobbie Gentry doc. Above all, she was just lovely and playful and earnest and talented. Her song ‘I kissed a girl’ blew the doors open for queer folk. This is so unbearably sad. Goodbye, sweet Jill. So grateful I got to be a fan and a friend.”

Margaret Cho shared a tribute to Sobule on Instagram, writing, “This is not real to me. @jillsobule I am in shock and cannot process this. #restinpower.”

The Fixx also mourned the loss on Facebook, writing, “We are absolutely devastated and shocked to hear the news of Jill Sobule’s untimely passing. Jill just finished a tour with us days ago…and was so full of life and talent. Our hearts are broken. We will always miss her.”

Sobule’s three-decade-long, 12-album career also included the 1997 track “Supermodel,” which featured prominently on the Clueless film soundtrack. The singer also wrote the theme song for the 2004 Nickelodeon show Unfabulous.

Her songwriting lent a unique LGBTQ+ lens to the coming-of-age story that few artists of the time maintained so openly.

More recently, Sobule’s Drama Desk-nominated autobiographical musical F– 7th Grade had four theatrical runs in three years. The musical sought to examine the all-consuming struggles of adolescence.

Sobule spoke to Playbill in 2023 about the musical, “My research is totally unscientific, but it’s also 100 percent right. Your body is a little ahead of your mind, it’s this hormonal thing. They call it the confidence gap. You’re suddenly in a body that doesn’t feel like yours anymore; I don’t think we ever get over that.”

Sobule was born in Denver in 1959. Her first album, Things Here Are Different, was produced by rock legend Todd Rundgren, formerly of Nazz. She signed with Atlantic Records in 1995.

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She went on to have an illustrious career of confessional, witty songwriting, with subject matter spanning her personal struggles with anorexia and depression, as well as nods to her Jewish heritage. In recent years, she even broached criticizing the Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement.

Sobule came out as bisexual in a 2002 interview with The New York Times. “All anyone wanted to know was, ‘What was I?'” Sobule told the outlet.

She continued, “It was a weird thing, because there was a part of me that wanted to say I’m bisexual, but I just didn’t want to get into that. There was a big debate about me, and people were saying, ‘Oh, she’s such a closet case — she won’t come out and say she’s a lesbian.’ And other people were saying, ‘Oh, she’s a heterosexual woman trying to catch a lesbian trend.’ You couldn’t win.”

The 30th anniversary reissue of Sobule’s self-titled album, which includes “I Kissed A Girl” and “Supermodel,” will be released posthumously on June 6.

PEOPLE reached out to the Minneapolis Fire Department for more details.