ALANIS MORISSETTE

Alanis Morissette is one of the most critically acclaimed singer/songwriters to be part of the massive success of women in rock music in the 1990's. Although her show business career started on a children's television show, which increasingly seems to be a route to success in popular music, her acceptance by critics has been far warmer than some others who started the same way.

Unlike Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera, who also rose from the ranks of children's TV, Alanis writes much of her own music, and has avoided the commercialism that has surrounded recent pop divas.

Alanis Nadine Morissette was born in 1974, and was raised in Ottawa, Canada with her two brothers by French-Canadian and Hungarian parents. As a child she began playing piano and writing songs. By the time she was ten years old, she had a role on the popular Nickelodeon TV show "You Can't Do That on Television" and had recorded her first single, "Fate Stay With Me." She spent most of her childhood years in Canada, often singing "O Canada" at sporting events and appearing on the very popular "Star Search.

By the time Alanis was 14 years old, she had signed a recording contract with MCA/Canada. Her debut album in 1991, "Alanis", was a collection of teeny bop dance songs that went platinum in Canada, but went unnoticed in the United States. That year she also won the Juno award (which is like a Grammy in Canada) for Most Promising Female Vocalist.

Her second album "Now Is the Time" was recorded and released before she graduated from high school in 1992. The album, made up of songs much like her first, did not sell nearly as well as her other, and at the tender age of 18, it looked like the peak of her recording career was behind her.

After graduating from high school, Morissette moved to Los Angeles where she met songwriter and producer Glen Ballard, who had worked with a number of important recording artists, including Michael Jackson and Paula Abdul. Ballard influenced Alanis to pursue a darker, more alternative rock-oriented sound with more confessional themes, changing her image from cute teenage diva to that of a passionate and introspective young woman. Acceptance by the major recording companies was slow in coming but she eventually began to work for Madonna's Maverick label.

Maverick released "Jagged Little Pill" in the summer of 1995 and it became an immediate hit, getting heavy airplay from both alternative radio and MTV. On the strength of the very popular single "You Oughta Know," the album reached platinum status and hit the Top 10. Follow-up singles, "Hand in My Pocket," "All I Really Want" and "Ironic" kept "Jagged Little Pill" on the album charts the next two years, ultimately selling 15 million copies.

The album earned massive critical acclaim and a number of awards for Alanis, including Grammys for Album of the Year, Best Female Rock Vocal Performance, Best Rock Song and Best Rock Album. Her critical and popular success continued with her next album, "Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie", which was released in 1998.