Singer Jill Sobule has died aged 66 after a house fire on Thursday morning.
The folk-pop musician, who is best known for her 1995 song I Kissed A Girl and Supermodel from the Clueless soundtrack, was due to perform a hometown shown in Denver on Friday.
Her manager John Porter has hailed her as a ‘force of nature and human rights advocate whose music is woven into our culture’.
He added in a statement: ‘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.’
According to local news reporters, firefighters were called to the property in Woodbury, Minnesota at around 5:30am local time on Thursday.
By the time first responders arrived on the scene, the home was already engulfed in the blaze, and the cause wasn’t immediately known.
According to the Star Tribute, police in the Woodbury suburb are now investigating the cause of the fatal fire.
A free gathering is set to take place in Denver, after she was set to perform songs from her autobiographical stage musical before her death.
Over a career spanning three decades, she delved into important issues in her music, including LGBTQ+ rights, the death penalty and anorexia.
Her eponymous album 30 years, which included her two big hits, was her best known work, while I Kissed A Girl rose in prominence in 2008 when Katy Perry dropped a different song with the same name.
Sobule initially claimed she didn’t ‘feel precious about the title’ in 2008, but she hit out at Katy the following year after the latter claimed the title came to her ‘in a dream’.
‘In truth, she wrote it with a team of professional writers and was signed by the very same guy that signed me in 1995,’ Sobule said.
‘I have not mentioned that in interviews as I don’t want to sound bitter or petty — ’cause, that’s not me.’
She branded Katy ‘title thieving’ and claimed she was ‘not quite sure if you’re talented’.
Just days before her death, she shared a black and white cartoon of a band of mermaids playing in the sea.
The image featured the quote: ‘Every gig now is about luring sailors to their deaths—remember when it used to be about the music?’
She added in the caption: ‘It’s been hard being on tour. I somehow messed up my back and have sciatica.
‘The morning is the worst. Any advice? Any good back docs l, physical therapist etc. in LA l? I’ll be there for a few weeks. In the meantime, a cartoon.’
As her career continued, she innovated and embrace the changing music scene, and pioneered the use of crowdfunding to release records, while she also penned songs for TV and theatre.
She wrote the theme for Nickelodeon’s Unfabulous, which aired from 2004 to 2007.
Why did I Kissed A Girl singer Jill Sobule feud with Katy Perry?
By: Danni Scott
A decade after its release, Jill Sobule’s biggest hit – I Kissed A Girl – was overshadowed by Katy Perry and her single of the same name.
Sobule didn’t hold back on her thoughts about the then 24-year-old star either, venting that Perry was a ‘f**king little sl*t’ in an interview in 2009.
For those who weren’t around in the late 00s, the ET singer appeared on the music scene like a firework… or maybe a rocket?
In 2008, Katy Hudson rebranded herself as Perry and her bubblegum pop album One of the Boys was set loose on the world.
Single I Kissed A Girl scored her first-ever US number one, with other hits like Hot ‘N’ Cold and Waking Up In Vegas solidifying her as a global superstar.
However, not everyone was cheering for Perry’s success, as all Sobule saw was her own hard work in the 90s being overshadowed and buried.
In 1995, she had released her own I Kissed A Girl — about two suburban women having a secret relationship — which climbed to number 20 in the US charts.
The music video even featured Fabio the model as Sobule’s male love interest, parodying his famous romance novel covers.
Perry’s 00s version was a completely different song, suggesting it was a drunken kiss rather than an ongoing emotional entanglement, but the title was the same.
‘You can’t copyright a song title,’ was the defeated response of Sobule, a year after Perry’s was released — having been tight-lipped about the coincidence until that point.
Initially, she told EW she didn’t ‘feel precious about the title … although I will admit that I do smile when a critique mentions my version in a more favourable light. Is that wrong?’
Resentment seemingly grew, and by 2009, Sobule told The Rumpus: ‘As a musician, I have always refrained from criticising another artist. I was, “well, good for her.”
‘It did bug me a little bit, however, when she said she came up with the idea for the title in a dream. In truth, she wrote it with a team of professional writers and was signed by the very same guy that signed me in 1995.
‘I have not mentioned that in interviews as I don’t want to sound bitter or petty — ’cause, that’s not me.’
Sobule then said: ‘F**k you Katy Perry, you f**king stupid, maybe “not good for the gays,” title thieving, haven’t heard much else, so not quite sure if you’re talented, f**king little s**t.’
Yikes.
Two years later, in the Huffington Post, she backtracked much of that statement, claiming she was being facetious and had said it with a wink
She said she had ‘rambled on with a string of over the top dumb-ass profanities’ which were out of character ‘purposely’ and said ‘completely in jest’
‘I have never really been angry or had ill feelings towards Katy herself,’ the singer clarified. ‘I was actually in a small way happy to not be the ‘Kissed a Girl’ girl anymore.’
After this Sobule fell away from the spotlight, rarely speaking on Perry publicly or their songs with the same name.
Perry has never addressed the feud, but did have to go on record saying she had kissed women after some LGBTQ+ communities called it appropriation.
