Jill Sobule, the groundbreaking singer-songwriter of the 1995 hit music “I Kissed a Lady,” has died in a home fireplace in Woodbury, Minn., roughly 16 miles from Minneapolis, her consultant confirmed to Selection. She was 66.
“Jill Sobule was a drive of nature and human rights advocate whose music is woven into our tradition,” her supervisor, John Porter, mentioned in an announcement to the outlet. “I used to be having a lot enjoyable working together with her. I misplaced a shopper and a good friend at present. I hope her music, reminiscence, & legacy proceed to stay on and encourage others.”
“I Kissed a Lady” is extensively thought to be the primary overtly lesbian pop music to peak within the Billboard prime 20. The folks-pop music paved the best way for numerous future LGBTQ+ pop stars to be open about their sexuality inside their songwriting and discover continued mainstream success.
Sobule’s administration and fellow artists mourned her dying by recognizing her dedication to progressive activism and her musical expertise. Her agent Craig Grossman of Black Oak Artists instructed ipromiseyoumedia, “she was such a drive of nature. Jill was additionally very, very humorous. When you noticed her stay, you grew to become a good friend–she was very, very accessible.”
Grossman continued to share a latest story about his time working as Sobule’s reserving agent for 4 years. The singer was most lately on tour with The Fixx. “Jill was a reasonably political individual. We’re on this unusual divided world. I keep in mind she was simply texting me and administration about one explicit music that she had been singing [on tour] that was pissing folks off.”
“The funniest half about that’s, after all within the execution, as a result of she had this child doll voice, this type of innocence to her. So when she would write these songs, it was loopy. She had a music known as ‘Do not F— in Texas’, which was a response to abortion rights.”
“This one hits laborious. Jill Sobule was a tremendous, beneficiant artist who lent her time and expertise to abortion rights and different progressive causes,” Sarah Thyre wrote on Instagram about her expertise collaborating with Sobule.
Thyre continued, “She ALWAYS confirmed up and confirmed out. She composed the unique theme music for my and @susanorlean’s ‘Crybabies’ podcast and took part in my and @rachellichtman’s Bobbie Gentry doc. Above all, she was simply beautiful and playful and earnest and gifted. Her music ‘I kissed a woman’ blew the doorways open for queer folks. That is so unbearably unhappy. Goodbye, candy Jill. So grateful I bought to be a fan and a good friend.”
Margaret Cho shared a tribute to Sobule on Instagram, writing, “This isn’t actual to me. @jillsobule I’m in shock and can’t course of this. #restinpower.”
The Fixx additionally mourned the loss on Fb, writing, “We’re completely devastated and shocked to listen to the information of Jill Sobule’s premature passing. Jill simply completed a tour with us days in the past…and was so lively and expertise. Our hearts are damaged. We are going to all the time miss her.”
Sobule’s three-decade-long, 12-album profession additionally included “Supermodel,” which featured prominently on the Clueless movie soundtrack in 1995. The singer additionally wrote the theme music for the 2004 Nickelodeon present Unfabulous.
Her songwriting lent a novel LGBTQ+ lens to the coming-of-age story that few artists of the time maintained so overtly.
Extra lately, Sobule’s Drama Desk-nominated autobiographical musical F– seventh Grade had 4 theatrical runs in three years. The musical sought to look at the all-consuming struggles of adolescence.
Sobule spoke to Playbill in 2023 in regards to the musical, “My analysis is completely unscientific, but it surely’s additionally one hundred pc proper. Your physique is somewhat forward of your thoughts, it’s this hormonal factor. They name it the boldness hole. You’re instantly in a physique that doesn’t really feel like yours anymore; I don’t suppose we ever recover from that.”
Sobule was born in Denver in 1959. Her first album, Issues Right here Are Totally different, was produced by rock legend Todd Rundgren in 1990. She signed with Atlantic Information in 1995 earlier than releasing the self-titled album that featured “I Kissed a Lady” and “Supermodel.” A thirtieth anniversary reissue of the album is deliberate for launch on June 6.
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She went on to have an illustrious profession of confessional, witty songwriting, with material spanning her struggles with anorexia and despair, in addition to nods to her Jewish heritage. Lately, she criticized the Make America Nice Once more motion.
Sobule got here out as bisexual in a 2002 interview with The New York Occasions. “All anybody needed to know was, ‘What was I?'” Sobule instructed the outlet.
She continued, “It was a bizarre factor, as a result of there was part of me that needed to say I am bisexual, however I simply did not need to get into that. There was an enormous debate about me, and other people have been saying, ‘Oh, she’s such a closet case — she will not come out and say she’s a lesbian.’ And different folks have been saying, ‘Oh, she’s a heterosexual lady attempting to catch a lesbian development.’ You could not win.”
ipromiseyoumedia reached out to each the Minneapolis and Woodbury Fireplace Departments for extra particulars.
