DENVER — A Jill Sobule concert that had been scheduled for Friday, May 2, has become an impromptu memorial after the 66-year-old Denver singer died in a house fire.

Fans are mourning Sobule, an artist and human rights activist best known for her songs “I Kissed a Girl” and “Supermodel” from the 1995 movie “Clueless,” after news spread Thursday afternoon that she had been killed in a house fire in Woodbury, Minnesota.

The cause is still under investigation, according to the Associated Press.

Sobule, who was born in Denver on Jan. 16, 1959, had been booked to play at Swallow Hill Music in south Denver Friday in a show presented by 105.5 The Colorado Sound the The Colorado Playlist. Her set was to consist of songs from her acclaimed musical "F—7thGRADE," which was nominated for a 2023 Drama Desk Award and praised by The New York Times.

Sobule also had a Saturday, May 3, concert at The Art Campus at Willits in Basalt and a Sunday, May 4, concert at The Armory in Fort Collins.

"We are terribly saddened to share the news that Jill Sobule passed away yesterday," Swallow Hill officials wrote. "Jill was a beloved member of the Swallow Hill community, and we know she will be sorely missed."

Instead of the Friday, May 2, concert, Swallow Hill will host an informal gathering in Jill's honor from 7:30 to 9 p.m. The event, hosted by Ron Bostwick, is free and open to the public. A formal memorial to celebrate her life and legacy will be held later this summer, according to her management team.

The songs in Sobule's recent musical dealt head-on with bullying and other topics that would shape Sobule's artistic trajectory, said friend and former classmate Cathy Pepper, who first met Sobule when they were students at Carson Elementary in Denver.

"Growing up in the '60s in elementary school, Jill had this inner struggle knowing she didn't fit in," said Pepper, whose name was used for the bully character in Sobule's recent musical — an affectionate nod to the kitschiness of her name, Pepper said, not a slam. "She would ride her blue Raleigh Chopper bike because she didn't want the cute pink Stingray and yet none of us knew what gay even was."

Sobule's groundbreaking hit, "I Kissed a Girl," was one of her many forays into topics that were just starting to be discussed widely in the 1990s, along with eating disorders (which Sobule also grappled with and wrote about), bullying, and various thorny subjects for young women. "I Kissed a Girl" would become the first openly gay-themed song to crack the Billboard Top 20, according to her publicist.

After a long period of not seeing one another, Sobule reached out to Pepper about five years ago to request any and all photos she had of Sobule in seventh grade at Hill Junior High (now Hill Campus of Arts & Sciences). While her request was related to her musical, Sobule and Pepper reconnected to the point that Pepper began hosting house concerts for Sobule — including one at Sobule's childhood home on South Elm Street.

Sobule's history with Swallow Hill also dates back decades. She began playing shows at the acoustic-focused nonprofit as early as 1982, according to an employee there, and this weekend's performance was seen widely as a homecoming.

"There was a documentary being filmed of her at this house concert I attended recently, so I'm looking forward to that coming out," Pepper said. "There was such a sweet sadness to her music as she would sing telling her stories, but her wit and her sense of humor came out in the funniest ways. You'd be crying in your heart, you'd be laughing out loud on the outside, because she could make fun of all of that raw honesty that she had. She was this tiny little thing, and yet she would open her mouth and sing and sound just like a songbird."

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