Alanis Morissette

Alanis Nadine Morissette was born on June 1, 1974, in Ottawa, Canada. At age 6, she began taking piano lessons, and by the time she was 9, she was writing her own songs.

When she was 11, Morissette joined the cast of a Nickelodeon children’s show called You Can’t Do That on Television, and saved up her earnings. In 1987, she used them to self-release her first track, “Fate Stay With Me.” The song caught the attention of record label MCA Canada; at age 14, Morissette signed a contract with the company. She released a self-titled album, Alanis, in 1991, which went platinum. Quickly following up the success of her first album, Morissette released Now Is The Time a year later, though it did not reach the same level of popularity.

In 1994 Morissette moved to Los Angeles teamed up with industry veteran Glen Ballard, and she began to approach songwriting more organically.
The result of Morissette’s collaboration with Ballard was Jagged Little Pill, which was released in 1995 by Maverick Records. With its edgy, alternative sound, the single “You Oughta Know” struck a strong chord with listeners. In 1996, the album won several Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year.

The songwriter herself described many of Jagged Little Pill’s songs as reactionary, whereas the songs on her next album, Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie (1998), were more about redemption and reconciliation than anger.

Despite her past success in collaborating with Ballard, Morissette decided to go it alone in 2001, writing and producing the album Under Rug Swept by herself, including the hit single “Hands Clean.”, followed by the album So-Called Chaos (2004).

Morissette’s next album, Flavors of Entanglement (2008), was recorded on the heels of her breakup with actor Ryan Reynolds, whom Morissette had been dating since 2002.

In May 2010, Morissette married Mario “MC Souleye” Treadway, and later that year, their son, Ever Imre Morissette-Treadway, was born. After the birth of her son, she began writing what would become her eighth studio album Havoc and Bright Lights.

In 2015, Morissette released a remastered version of Jagged Little Pill for its 20th anniversary, bundled with a CD of unreleased tracks.

Jagged Little Pill went on to become the soundtrack to a Broadway musical of the same name. Its first performance was on May 5, 2018.