Alanis Morissette

Alanis Nadine Morissette (born June 1, 1974) is a Canadian and American singer-songwriter.

She is known for her emotive mezzo-soprano voice and confessional songwriting.

Morissette was born on June 1, 1974, at Riverside Hospital in Ottawa, Ontario, to teacher Georgia Mary Ann ( Feuerstein) and high-school principal and French teacher Alan Richard Morissette.

She has two brothers: her older brother Chad is a business entrepreneur, and her twin brother (12 minutes older) Wade Morissette is a musician.

Her father is of French and Irish descent, whereas her mother has Hungarian and Jewish ancestry.

On an episode of Finding Your Roots in 2024, she learned for the first time that her maternal grandfather had escaped the Holocaust in Hungary and had spent years trying to find his two brothers.

Morissette didn't learn of her Jewish heritage until her late 20s.

Her parents had never shared her maternal Jewish heritage because of the generational trauma.

Her parents were teachers in a military school and due to their work often had to move.

Between the ages of three and six she lived with her parents in Lahr (Black Forest), West Germany.

When she was six years old, she returned to Ottawa and started to play the piano.

In 1981, at the age of seven, she began taking dance lessons.

Morissette had a Catholic upbringing.

She attended Holy Family Catholic School for elementary school and Immaculata High School for Grades 7 and 8 before graduating from high school at Glebe Collegiate Institute.

She appeared on the children's television sketch comedy You Can't Do That on Television for five episodes when she was in junior high school.

Alanis composed her first song at the age of 10.

Morissette recorded her first demo called "Fate Stay with Me", produced by Lindsay Thomas Morgan at Marigold Studios in Toronto, and engineered by Rich Dodson of Canadian classic rock band The Stampeders.

A second demo tape was recorded on cassette in August 1989 and sent to Geffen Records, but the tape has never been heard as it was stolen, among other records, in a burglary of the label's headquarters in October 1989.

Morissette began her music career in Canada in the early 1990s with two dance-pop albums.

In 1991, MCA Records Canada released Morissette's debut album, Alanis, in Canada only.

Morissette co-wrote every track on the album with its producer, Leslie Howe.

The dance-pop album went platinum, and its first single, "Too Hot", reached the top 20 on the RPM singles chart.

Subsequent singles "Walk Away" and "Feel Your Love" reached the top 40.

Morissette's popularity, style of music and appearance, particularly that of her hair, led her to become known as the Debbie Gibson of Canada; comparisons to Tiffany were also common.

In 1995, she released Jagged Little Pill, an alternative rock-oriented album with elements of post-grunge.

This album sold more than 33 million copies globally, propelling her to become a cultural phenomenon.

It earned her the Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 1996 and was adapted into a rock musical of the same name in 2017.

The musical earned fifteen Tony Award nominations, including Best Musical.

Morissette followed up with a highly anticipated, more experimental, critically acclaimed album Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie, which was released in 1998.

She is ranked number 53 on VH1's 1999 "100 Greatest Women of Rock and Roll".

With seven Grammy Awards, fourteen Juno Awards, one Brit Award, two Golden Globe nominations, and more than 75 million records sold worldwide, Morissette was once referred to as the "Queen of Alt-Rock Angst" by Rolling Stone.

Under Rug Swept (2002) marked the first time Morissette being the sole producer of the whole album.

Her first three internationally released studio albums topped the Billboard 200 albums chart and the rest of her albums peaked within Top 20.

Additionally, the album was listed in Rolling Stone 's 2003 and 2020 editions of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time" guide.

The lead single, "You Oughta Know", was also included at #103 in their "500 Greatest Songs of All Time".

Taking further creative control and production duties, Morissette continued her career with subsequent studio albums, including So-Called Chaos (2004), Flavors of Entanglement (2008), Havoc and Bright Lights (2012), and Such Pretty Forks in the Road (2020).

Her latest album, The Storm Before the Calm, featuring ambient music, was released in 2022.

Morissette's singles, including "You Oughta Know", "Hand in My Pocket", "Ironic", "You Learn", "Head Over Feet", "Uninvited", "Thank U", and "Hands Clean", reached top 40 in the major charts around the world.

She boasts ten top-40 songs in the UK, three top-10 hits in the US and Australia, and twelve top-10 tracks in her native Canada.

Morissette also holds the record for the most No. 1s on the weekly Billboard Alternative Songs chart among female soloists, group leaders, or duo members.