(Reuters) – Singer-songwriter Jill Sobule, whose hits included the satirical anthem “Supermodel” from the “Clueless” movie soundtrack and the groundbreaking single “I Kissed a Girl,” died early on Thursday in a Minneapolis-area house fire, media outlets reported. She was 66.
Her manager John Porter confirmed her death in a statement to the Minnesota Star Tribune.
According to her website, Sobule had been due to perform on Friday in her native Denver to showcase songs from her autobiographical stage musical “F*ck 7th Grade,” which was nominated in 2023 for a Drama Desk Award.
Sobule was remembered for a diverse body of music that ranged from deeply intimate to socially conscious themes in a recording career that spanned a dozen albums starting in 1990 with her Todd Rungren-produced debut collection “Things Here Are Different.”
Her eponymous 1995 album included two of her biggest hits, “Supermodel” from the Hollywood coming-of-age comedy film “Clueless,” and “I Kissed a Girl,” widely regarded as the first openly LGBTQ-themed song to crack the Billboard Top 20 singles chart. It peaked at No. 20 that year.
The song drew renewed attention in 2008 when Katy Perry released a different single of her own with the same title.
Authorities in Woodbury, Minnesota, a suburb of Minneapolis, are investigating the cause of the fire at the house where Sobule was found, the Star Tribune reported.
(This story has been refiled to say ‘Star Tribune’ instead of ‘Star Tribute’, in paragraph 2)
(Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Christopher Cushing)
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