Log in to your account
Stats
Biography
Prior to making waves in the music industry, Morissette had appeared on the children’s television show “You Can’t Do That on Television”. Using money she had earned from the show the young talent recorded her first music demo entitled “Fate Stay With Me” in 1985, when the singer was 11. Three years later Morissette inked a publishing contract and in 1991, after signing with MCA Canada, released her debut album “Alanis”. Produced and co-written by Leslie Howe, the album became a hit in Canada, spawned the singles “Too Hot”, “Walk Away”, and “Feel Your Love”, and led to Morissette winning the Juno Award for Most Promising Female Vocalist.
Morissette’s sophomore album “Now Is the Time”, released in 1992, was a more thoughtful and candid album, and featured less pop production work than its predecessor. Despite being popular and producing three Top 40 singles “An Emotion Away”, “No Apologies” and “(Change Is) Never a Waste of Time”, the album was a comparative commercial failure and the singer was dropped from MCA Canada.
After graduating from high school, in liaison with her manager Scott Welsh, Morissette moved to Toronto, Canada, and began recording her third full-length in songwriter and producer Glen Ballard’s studio. By 1995 she had signed a deal with Maverick Records who issued “Jagged Little Pill” internationally in June 1995. The album’s lead single “You Oughta Know” soon got picked up by the relevant and influential Los Angeles, California radio station KROQ-FM, snowballing Morissette to success. The exposure led to heavy rotation on MTV and MuchMusic, and resulted in “Jagged Little Pill” reaching No. 1 in the U.S. Subsequent singles included “All I Really Want”, “Hand in My Pocket” and the instantly recognisable “Ironic”. The album went on to sell over 30 million copies worldwide, was certified 12 times platinum in Canada, and won the singer-songwriter six Juno Awards and four Grammy Awards in 1996.
After a successful tour in support of the album, and a six-week hiatus in India, the singer collaborated with Ringo Starr and Dave Matthews Band before returning to the studio to focus on her follow-up. Released in 1998, “Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie” earned the highest first-week sales by any female artist, however failed to live-up to the success of its predecessor. After contributing four tracks to the Jonathan Elias project “The Prayer Cycle” Morissette released the live acoustic album “Alanis Unplugged” and toured alongside Tori Amos.
Morissette’s fifth studio album “Under Rug Swept” once again topped the charts in Canada, this time however the singer wrote and produced the album on her own. Aided by the singles “Hands Clean”, “So Unsexy”, and “Precious Illusions”, the album went platinum in Canada and sold over a million copies in the States. After the live concert DVD “Feast on Scraps” in 2002 the singer went on to release her sixth full-length album “So-Called Chaos” issued in 2004, followed by the acoustic rework of her breakthrough album entitled “Jagged Little Pill Acoustic”. In 2008 Morissette released the album “Flavors of Entanglement” which documented the break-up of her relationship with Ryan Reynolds, followed by “Havoc and Bright Lights” in 2012.
Live reviews
I had an amazing time seeing Alanis Morissette live a couple years ago at Club Nokia in Los Angeles, California. She had a large crowd of over 2,000 people completely mesmerized for the whole set, and brought all of us through the whole gamut of emotions. Even though it is a pretty large venue, the layout has everybody pretty close to the stage so it still feels relatively intimate.
I had just gotten out of a long relationship, and so I was particularly fond of her older, angrier material (like "You Oughta Know" and "You Learn"). Still, just like how Alanis Morissette’s music mellowed out as she matured, I felt the emotional scars heal up a bit when her newer music played and gave me a new perspective on things – basically, I felt like she and I connected and she let me know that no matter how awful I was feeling, things would eventually get better.
There is a sort of unfiltered emotional honesty in Alanis Morissette’s music that you just usually don’t get in music, and its rarity makes it that much more special. I highly recommend that everybody go catch Alanis Morissette in concert when you get the chance.
There are few singers who could be said to look at more at home onstage as Alanis Morissette. She moves, dances and skips along with the music as if a woman possessed by the beats and makes her whole performance feel incredibly organic. By this logic, it is difficult for the crowds to sometimes know when to applaud as she is so masterful at merging her extensive discography into one and other that the whole show feels like one fluid piece of pop rock.
Understandably, with a career that spans over twenty years Alanis's sets are large in length yet she shows no sign of wavering on the energy front from the opener of 'I Remain' to the final tones of 'Thank U'. The crowd has a similar level of enthusiasm throughout as Morissette delivers hit after hit and the crowd has the opportunity to sing along to the alt-rock melodies of 'Hands Clean', 'Ironic' and 'You Learn'.
She also has a great rapport with her supportive live band who she introduces and thanks personally. They delight crowds with an angst heavy rendition of 'Uninvited' before leaving her British audience yearning for the Canadian to visit more regularly.
sean-ward
I wasn’t sure what to expect from Alanis, her life seems very spiritual and peaceful these days, so part of me thought this could be a quite acoustic gig with alanis sat on a stool telling us how good life is,
Well I couldn’t have been more wrong, this was full on rock & roll, she played, along with her amazing group of musicians, every thing I wanted, powerful, louder and heavier than I imagined, She played a set lasting nearly 2 hours, and through out she had a great smile on her face looking like she was enjoying the show as much as everyone in the audience, one of the best live performances I have seen,
She looks amazing too, loving the short hair
Anyone going Friday have a great night
allenk61
One of the best concerts I’ve been to in my entire life, Alanis’s jagged Little pill was the soundtrack to my childhood and early teens, it was so emotionally and spiritually fulfilling to be in her presence along with thousands of other singing our hearts out to every word of her songs it was an incredible night that I will never forget
jenna-mccormack
Second time seeing Alanis live and wow, I was blown away. She's just phenomenal. No words to describe this show. She sang acoustic versions of the full Jagged Little Pill plus a few songs from her other albums. Can't wait to see her in London again this September.
valentinaventuri
Alanis Morissette was in top form and delivered a great show but Ravinia has lost a step..... the sound was simply awful and the crowd didn't seem to understand there was a great artist on stage. I probably will never go back to Ravinia given these two facts.
tim-clue
Saw her in Amsterdam for the acoustic version of Jagged little pill. I have always been a fan, but I had no idea how amazing her voice is in a small intimate setting, even sometimes surpassing the studio versions. All I can say it was amazing.
yaron-lirase
Breath taking concert... as a huge fan I expected two more songs but all of was amazing!!! I had great seat and the place looks like the set of the mtv unplugged. I went back to the 90s. PERFECTION!
Karem-Gonzalez
Videos (2)
