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Alanis Nadine Morissette (born in Ottawa, 1 June 1974) is a Canadian and naturalized[1] American singer-songwriter, record producer, and occasional actress, who ranks among the top selling recording artists in history. She began her career in Canada, and as a child recorded two dance-pop albums, Alanis and Now Is the Time, under MCA Records. Her international debut album was the rock-influenced Jagged Little Pill. Jagged Little Pill sold thirty million copies, making it the best-selling debut album of all time by a female artist.[2]
Biography1974–1990: Early lifeAlanis Morissette was born in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, to Alan and Georgia Morissette. Alanis had a twin brother Wade, and an older brother, Chad. In 1986, Morissette had her first stint as an actress: five episodes of the children's television show You Can't Do That on Television. Using money she saved from that role, she released an independent single "Fate Stay with Me" with the B-side, "Find the Right Man". She appeared onstage with the Orpheus Musical Theatre Society in 1985 and 1988.[3] During her high school years, Morissette attended Glebe Collegiate Institute in Ottawa. At a New York City audition, Morissette landed a spot on Star Search, a popular American talent competition on which she used her stage name, Alanis Nadine. Morissette flew to Los Angeles to appear on the show, but lost after one round. 1990–1993: Alanis and Now Is the Time
During the ages 14 to 18, Morissette suffered from anorexia and bulimia nervosa, catalysed by "hardcore" professional pressure and managerial demands from her work towards making her first album. She recalled returning to the studio to re-record some vocals, only to be told "I actually wanted to talk to you about your weight. You can't be successful if you're fat." She lived on a diet of carrots, black coffee, and Melba toast, and her weight fluctuated by 15 to 20 pounds. She subsequently began therapy, which she called "a long process to un-program [my brain]. I try to remember, whatever my body is, it's perfect the way it is."[4] In 1992, Morissette was nominated for three Juno Awards: "Single of the Year", "Best Dance Recording" (for "Too Hot"), and "Most Promising Vocalist (Female)" (which she won). In the same year, she released her second album, Now Is the Time; this featured the top forty single "An Emotion Away", and attempted to move away from her first album's dance-pop sound. Now Is the Time sold less than half the number of copies of her first album, and, with her two-album deal with MCA Canada complete, she was left without a major label contract. During this period, Morissette dated Dave Coulier of television's Full House fame.[5] In 1993, she appeared in the film Just One of the Girls starring Corey Haim. 1993–1995: Move to Los AngelesIn 1993, Morissette moved from Ottawa to Toronto. Living alone for the first time in her life, she met with a bevy of songwriters, but the results frustrated her.[citation needed] A visit to Nashville a few months later also proved fruitless. Morissette began making trips to Los Angeles and working with as many musicians as possible, in the hopes of meeting a collaborator. During this time, she met producer and songwriter Glen Ballard. According to Ballard,[citation needed] the connection was "instant", and within thirty minutes of meeting each other they had begun experimenting with different sounds in Ballard's home studio. Ballard and Morissette penned their first song together, called "The Bottom Line". The turning point in their sessions was the song "Perfect", written and recorded in twenty minutes. Morissette improvised the lyrics on the spot, while Ballard played guitar. The version that appeared on Jagged Little Pill, Morissette's next album, was the only take the pair recorded. Ballard and Morissette recorded the songs on Jagged Little Pill literally as they wrote the tunes. According to Morissette, Ballard was the first collaborator who encouraged her to express her emotions. By the spring of 1995, Morissette had signed a deal with Maverick Records. As she later revealed[citation needed], during her stay in L.A., a man with a gun confronted and robbed her on a deserted street, although the thief did not take the writing and brainstorming notes in her purse: the scribblings that soon made up Jagged Little Pill. Morissette subsequently developed an intense and general angst, which manifested in random daily panic attacks, even on planes. She checked herself into a hospital and attended psychotherapy sessions, but with no improvement. She focused all her inner problems on the soul-baring lyrics of the album for her own health.[citation needed] 1995–1998: Jagged Little PillMaverick Records released Morissette's first international album, Jagged Little Pill, in 1995. Scott Welsh, Morissette's manager and long-time friend, and executives at Maverick expected the album to sell at very best around 250,000 copies.[6] The album debuted at number 118 on the U.S. Billboard 200 album chart, but the situation changed quickly when a Los Angeles DJ from an influential radio station began playing "You Oughta Know", the album's first single.[6] The song instantly garnered attention and a subsequent music video went into heavy rotation on MTV and MuchMusic. Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers plays bass on the track, along with then-bandmate Dave Navarro on guitar. After the success of "You Oughta Know", the album's other hit singles helped send Jagged Little Pill to the top of the charts. "All I Really Want" and "Hand in My Pocket" followed, but the fourth U.S. single, "Ironic", became Morissette's biggest hit. "You Learn" and "Head over Feet", the fifth and sixth singles, respectively, kept Jagged Little Pill in the top twenty on the Billboard 200 for over a year. According to the RIAA, Jagged Little Pill is the best-selling debut album of all time by a female artist, with over fourteen million copies sold in the U.S. As of 2005, it had sold thirty million worldwide.[2] In Ireland, when the album Under Rug Swept was released in 2002, Jagged Little Pill re-entered the album chart on February 21 at number seventy-two[7] and reached nineteen on March 7.[8] It took nine weeks for it to depart the chart again. Morissette was attacked for collaborating with producer and supposed image-maker Ballard,[citation needed] although she was responsible for all of Jagged Little Pill's lyrics and much of the album's music.[citation needed] The album was nominated for six Grammy Awards in 1996, and Morissette won "Best Female Rock Vocal Performance" and "Best Rock Song" for "You Oughta Know", and "Best Rock Album" and "Album of the Year" for Jagged Little Pill (she lost "Best New Artist" and "Song of the Year"). Later in 1996, Morissette embarked on an eighteen-month world tour in support of Jagged Little Pill, beginning in small clubs and ending in large venues. Taylor Hawkins, currently with the Foo Fighters, was the tour's drummer. "Ironic" was nominated for two 1997 Grammy Awards: "Record of the Year" and "Best Music Video, Short Form". The video Jagged Little Pill, Live, which chronicled the bulk of the tour, won a 1998 Grammy Award for "Best Music Video, Long Form". During the tour, Morissette became disillusioned with the music industry and declared being tired of constant travelling, quick and superficial relationships and parties full of drugs – subjects which made her think of ditching her career. She started practicing Iyengar Yoga for balancing, and after the last December 1996 show in Hawaii, she headed to India for six weeks, accompanied by her mother, two aunts and two female friends.[9] 1998–2001: Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie and UnpluggedMorissette recorded the song "Uninvited" for the soundtrack to the 1998 film City of Angels. Although the track was never commercially released as a single, it received widespread radio airplay in the U.S. At the 1999 Grammy Awards, it won in the categories of "Best Rock Song" and "Best Female Rock Vocal Performance", and was nominated for "Best Song Written Specifically for a Motion Picture". Later in 1998, Morissette released Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie, on which she again collaborated with Ballard. Fans and critics alike were unprepared for Morissette's new songwriting approach: most of the tracks, including "Would Not Come" and "Unsent", challenged traditional song formulas. They included one-chord drone melodies and Morissette singing over letter-like prose texts; some songs lacked choruses or took a long time to reach them. Privately,[citation needed] the label hoped to sell a million copies of the album on initial release, but it sold about half of that. Nonetheless, it debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart with first-week sales of 470,000 copies — a record, at the time, for the highest first-week sales of an album by a female artist. As a follow-up to Jagged Little Pill, Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie had very little staying power: its wordy, personal lyrics alienated many fans. After twenty-eight weeks it left the Billboard 200 with sales of 2.6 million, a huge decline from Jagged Little Pill. Worldwide, it sold about seven million copies. However, it received positive reviews, including a four-star review from Rolling Stone. "Thank U", the album's only hit single, and "So Pure" were nominated for the 2000 Grammy Awards for "Best Female Pop Vocal Performance" and "Best Female Rock Vocal Performance", respectively. The "Thank U" music video, which featured Morissette nude, generated mild controversy. In 1999, Morissette released the live acoustic album, Alanis Unplugged, which was recorded during her appearance on the television show MTV Unplugged. It included three new songs, including one she wrote with her main guitar player, Nick Lashley, called "No Pressure over Cappuccino". She contributed vocals to the songs "Don't Drink the Water" and "Spoon" on the Dave Matthews Band album Before These Crowded Streets, as well as "Mercy" and "Innocence", two tracks from Jonathan Elias's project The Prayer Cycle. That same year, Morissette released a live version of her song "Are You Still Mad" on the charity album Live in the X Lounge II. Morissette delved into acting again, for the first time since her childhood role on You Can't Do That on Television, appearing as God in the Kevin Smith film Dogma. Smith, a fan of Morissette's, asked her to be in the film several times.[citation needed] She had to turn down the female lead and by the time her schedule allowed her to participate in the film, only the role of God, which involves virtually no dialogue and only an appearance at the very end of the film, was left. She also appeared on the hit HBO comedies Sex and the City and Curb Your Enthusiasm and starred in the play The Vagina Monologues. 2002–2003: Under Rug SweptAfter a four year absence, Morissette released her third international studio album, Under Rug Swept, in February 2002. For the first time in her recording career, Morissette took on the role of sole writer and producer. Her band, comprising Joel Shearer, Nick Lashley, Chris Chaney and Gary Novak, played the majority of the instruments. Me'shell Ndegeocello played bass on the tracks "You Owe Me Nothing in Return" and "So Unsexy". Shortly after recording the album, Morissette hired an entirely new band, featuring Jason Orme, Zac Rae, David Levita, and Blair Sinta, who have been with her since. Under Rug Swept produced the hit single, "Hands Clean" and debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart, selling 215,000 in the first week. Under Rug Swept eventually sold a million copies in the U.S. alone, but only "Hands Clean" received any substantial radio airplay. Morissette won a Juno Award for "Producer of the Year". The CD/DVD combination package, Feast on Scraps, which included live concert footage and eight previously unreleased songs from the Under Rug Swept recording sessions, was released in December. The album was nominated for a Juno Award for "DVD of the Year". In November 2003, Morissette appeared in the off-Broadway play The Exonerated as Sunny Jacobs, a death row inmate freed after proof surfaced that she was innocent. 2004: So-Called ChaosMorissette released her fourth international studio album, So-Called Chaos, in May 2004. She wrote the songs on her own again and co-produced the album with Tim Thorney and John Shanks. Selling over 115,000 copies in its first week of U.S. release, the album debuted at number five on the Billboard 200 chart to generally mixed critical reviews. The album's lead single, "Everything", achieved major success on Adult Top 40 radio but failed to reach the top forty on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. Because executives at Maverick Records wanted to avoid a censor "bleep" in the first line of the song,[citation needed] the radio and music video versions of the single include the word "nightmare" instead of "asshole"; several verses from the album version were also edited out. Two other singles, "Out Is Through" and "Eight Easy Steps", fared worse commercially than "Everything", although a dance mix of "Eight Easy Steps" was a top ten hit on the U.S. Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart. In June 2004, Morissette announced her engagement to actor, and fellow Canadian, Ryan Reynolds.[10] During that time, she also gave an interview to British newspaper The Mirror in which she declared having had homosexual flings in the past, having dated a man thirty years her senior at age fourteen and, in a brief way, her experiences with drugs. In the article she says: "My addictions were work and food. I smoked pot once in a while, but I'm too much of a control freak to be a drug person."[11] She expanded her own acting credentials with the July release of the Cole Porter biographical film De-Lovely, in which she performed the song "Let's Do It (Let's Fall in Love)" and had a brief role as an anonymous stage performer. Morissette hosted the 2004 Juno Awards and embarked on a successful U.S. summer tour with long-time friends and fellow Canadians, the Barenaked Ladies. 2005: Jagged Little Pill Acoustic and The CollectionIn February 2005, Morissette became a naturalized citizen of the United States while still maintaining her Canadian citizenship. Morissette refers to herself as a Canadian–American. That same month, she made a guest appearance on the Canadian television show Degrassi: The Next Generation along with Dogma co-star Jason Mewes and director Kevin Smith. To commemorate the tenth anniversary of Jagged Little Pill, Morissette released a studio acoustic version in June 2005 entitled Jagged Little Pill Acoustic. The album was exclusively released through Starbucks' Hear Music retail concept through their coffee shops for a six-week run, much like Ray Charles' successful album Genius Loves Company. This move caused much controversy, with companies such as HMV in Canada removing their entire Morissette catalog for the duration of the deal in protest. The version that went into wide release included enhanced features not included on the Starbucks release version. Jagged Little Pill Acoustic sold about 330,000 copies in the U.S. and one million worldwide; its first single was "Hand in My Pocket". The accompanying tour ran for two months in the summer of 2005, with Morissette playing small, intimate theatre venues. During this period, Morissette was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame.[12] Morissette released the greatest hits album Alanis Morissette: The Collection in late 2005, with a cover of the 1991 Seal song "Crazy" as the first single. The song reached the top ten on the Billboard Adult Top 40 chart. A limited edition of The Collection features a DVD including a documentary with videos of two unreleased songs from Morissette's 1996 Can't Not Tour: "King of Intimation" and "Can't Not" (the latter appeared in a reworked version on Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie). The DVD also includes a ninety-second clip of the unreleased video for the single "Joining You". Morissette contributed a song entitled "Wunderkind" to the soundtrack of the film The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and it was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for "Best Original Song". 2006–presentIn April 2006, MTV.com reported that Morissette would reprise her role in The Exonerated in London from May 23 through the May 28.[13] Rolling Stone reported in January 2006 that Morissette was in between "intense" writing sessions for her upcoming 2007 studio album, which was to be co-produced by Mike Elizondo, and that she was going to spend 2006 working on a memoir. She said of her book, "it will be all the wisdom I've accrued in the thirty-one years of my life (...) A lot about relationships, fame, travel, body-image issues, spirit — with a lot of self-deprecating humor peppered throughout, 'cause I just can't help it."[14] More recently, she has been delving back into acting, guest starring in an episode of Lifetime's Lovespring International and three episodes of FX's Nip/Tuck, playing a lesbian. In October 2006 Morissette said in an interview with TV Guide that she was going to start writing new material over the next few weeks, saying "I usually fill two journals for each record and at the present, I have seven journals full. I have a lot within me ready to burst out."[15] In July 2006, People magazine reported that Morissette had split from her fiancé, Ryan Reynolds, but neither party confirmed this report.[16] Later that month, a source said that they were indeed together,[17] and Contact Music reported that their split was a "rumor".[18] Morissette and Reynolds were pictured holding hands in Los Angeles,[19] sinking the rumors. However, in February 2007, Morissette and Ryan Reynolds mutually decided to end their engagement.[20][21] On April 1, 2007, Morissette released a cover of The Black Eyed Peas' "My Humps".[22][23], a spoof sung in a slow, mournful voice. The video of the single, in which she dances provocatively with a group of men and hits the ones who attempt to touch her "lady lumps," became an internet sensation, getting over 2.5 million hits in only three days and spurring parodies of her parody. She is currently rumored to be working on her next album with producer Guy Sigsworth. DiscographyAlbums
Singles ChartChart results for singles in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Spain and Italy.
Stage, film, and television
Videography
Tours
Sidenote: 2006 marks the first year in the recorded history of Morissette's musical career that she had not a single concert appearance showcasing her own songs, with the exception of an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in January when she performed "Wunderkind". See alsoNotes and references
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