Jill Sobule's Legacy Is So Much Grander Than One Hit Song

Forbes

03-05-2025

Jill Sobule, best known for her groundbreaking hit 'I Kissed a Girl,' has died at 66, leaving behind ... More a legacy of LGBTQ visibility and musical activism. Jill Sobule performing at Bowery Ballroom on Thursday night, March 16, 2000.(Photo by)
Jill Sobule is, technically, a one-hit wonder. Her success on the Billboard charts is largely limited to one tune — and it's the one she'll be remembered for. The singer passed away on May 1, 2025, and reportedly died in a house fire in Minnesota. She was just 66 at the time of her death.
While she may have only scored a single smash – at least in the traditional, commercial sense of the word – in her music career, Sobule's legacy is much larger than just that one composition, and certainly much more important than chart positions or sales.
Sobule scored it big with her breakout hit 'I Kissed a Girl,' which was released in 1995. The tune reached No. 67 on the Hot 100, and it would prove to be her only appearance on Billboard's list of the most consumed tracks in America.
While she continued to release music after her self-titled sophomore full-length, which spawned the hit, ultimately dropping 10 projects in total as well as other standalone cuts — and even a musical — Sobule is remembered largely for that one song.
The cut gained notoriety at the time of its release as well as commercial success, and it was revived decades later by happenstance. By that point, the world had changed, and there was room for people to express themselves, their art, and their love, how they wanted, thanks in part to her pioneering work with the catchy cut.
When Sobule's 'I Kissed a Girl' was on the rise, it was one of the first openly LGBTQ-themed songs to become a Billboard hit. At the time, it faced bans on certain radio stations, especially in the southern part of the United States, which is known to be more conservative. Many DJs and programmers simply couldn't accept the idea of promoting a track that embraced woman-on-woman love.
Even Sobule's own bisexuality was often left unmentioned by some in the industry. There were those who wanted to promote her, but feared that doing so while openly and authentically acknowledging who she really was would hurt her chances of charting and finding commercial success. This is not an usually story for people in the entertainment world (and beyond), though the issue looks and feels markedly different in the year 2025 than it did three decades ago.
The tune gained renewed attention after Katy Perry released a song of the same name in 2008. Perry broke out in a major way and became a huge pop star with her 'I Kissed a Girl.' It was not a cover, however, but rather a totally different track that leaned into the tongue-in-cheek nature — literally — of a woman kissing another woman.
Perry's version was all in good fun, but gay rights had changed quite a bit since 1995, when Sobule sang about the topic. Back then, it was much more controversial, and she put much more on the line, especially as an openly bisexual musician. Her 'I Kissed a Girl' paved the way for a more open conversation about sexuality in this country — and for people like Perry to play around with the idea of it, even if just for attention at times.
Sobule seemed thankful for Perry's composition in some interviews, while at other times, she said some very negative things — though they may have been in jest.
Most one-hit wonders simply score a huge single and then try to repeat that success, or least live off of its ubiquity. Sobule did much more with hers. She changed an important conversation and furthered an entire movement in her own way with her art. If that's what she'll be remembered for, hers should still be considered a successful and fulfilling career.