69 Fun Facts About Alanis Morissette

In which Canadian city was Alanis Morissette born?

Ottawa. As a child she sang at the city's hospitals and community centres alongside Dominic D'Arcy, a police officer known locally as the singing policeman.

Alanis's twin brother Wade built his own career teaching which discipline?

Yoga. Wade, born 12 minutes before her, studied with yoga masters in his 20s and went on to tour, leading workshops and kirtan concerts where the audience chants mantras back to his guitar.

What was the title of Alanis Morissette's breakthrough 1995 album?

Jagged Little Pill. Her own team expected it to sell a few hundred thousand copies at best; it has sold about 33 million worldwide.

Which producer co-wrote and produced Alanis's 1995 breakthrough album?

Glen Ballard. In 1994 their shared music publisher asked him to try writing a song with an unknown 19-year-old from Canada, and he ended up giving her the run of his home studio.

The title of Alanis's 1995 album comes from a line in which of its songs?

You Learn. People at her label tipped it as the obvious single before the album came out, yet other songs were released first; when its turn came it reached No. 1 on US pop radio.

Which label, co-founded by Madonna, released Alanis's 1995 breakthrough album?

Maverick. Its young talent scout Guy Oseary was sold 30 seconds into the first song he heard, and the deal was done almost at once, after nearly every major label had passed.

Which two Red Hot Chili Peppers played on "You Oughta Know"?

Flea and Dave Navarro. Called in by her label once the song was written, they took its music apart and rebuilt it around her finished vocal; Flea thought the original bassline was weak.

Which Full House actor has claimed to be the ex who inspired Alanis's "You Oughta Know"?

Dave Coulier, who dated her in the early 1990s. He has both claimed and denied being the song's target, and she has always refused to say who it is about.

Which single was Alanis's biggest hit and her highest-charting on the Billboard Hot 100, at No. 4?

Ironic. She has said she almost left it off the album: it was an early writing exercise that she kept only because the people around her insisted.

In the video for her biggest hit, Alanis drives through a winter landscape while playing whom?

Multiple passengers in the car: she plays the driver and all three riders. She has said each stands for a side of her, and that the frolicking one in the green sweater is closest to the real her.

'Your House', the hidden track that ends Alanis's 1995 album, is performed in which style?

A cappella. With no instruments behind her, she sings of letting herself into an absent lover's house, trying on his robe and playing his CDs, until she finds a love letter in someone else's handwriting.

Which band beat Alanis to the 1996 Best New Artist Grammy?

Hootie & the Blowfish. She was still the night's biggest winner, taking home four Grammys, Album of the Year among them.

Which instrument did Alanis try for the first time while recording her 1995 album, then play on 'Hand in My Pocket'?

Harmonica. She says her producer simply handed her one in the studio, and the demo take of 'Hand in My Pocket', her first go at the instrument, is the version on the album.

Which future Foo Fighters drummer played on Alanis's 1995–96 world tour?

Taylor Hawkins. When Dave Grohl needed a drummer in 1997 he assumed Hawkins would never leave her far bigger tour, but Hawkins volunteered and stayed with the band for 25 years.

Which band opened for Alanis on her summer 1996 tour of US amphitheatres?

Radiohead. They used the slot to try out unreleased songs such as 'Paranoid Android'; Jonny Greenwood later recalled playing to 'an audience full of quietly despairing teenage girls'.

Where did Alanis travel after her 18-month world tour, a trip that inspired "Thank U"?

India. She went with her mother, two aunts and two friends to recover from the strain of sudden fame, and the song's chorus thanks the country by name.

How does Alanis appear throughout her "Thank U" video as she walks city streets and rides the subway?

Completely nude, with her long hair covering her chest. The idea came to her in the shower; she called it a symbol of being raw and unguarded in places where people usually want protection.

Alanis's "Uninvited", which won two Grammys, was recorded for the soundtrack of which 1998 film?

City of Angels. A bootleg copy reached a Los Angeles radio station and the internet weeks before release, so the label rushed the whole soundtrack to stations to stop them airing pirated versions.

What was the title of Alanis's 1998 follow-up to her breakthrough album?

Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie. She made it after stepping away for about 18 months once her world tour ended, and its 17 tracks traded the fury of her breakthrough for introspective songs tinged with Eastern sounds.

In 2000, which star nearly tripled Alanis's 1998 US first-week sales record for a woman?

Britney Spears, whose Oops!... I Did It Again sold 1.3 million in a week against Alanis's 469,000. Alanis's fast start soon faded, and the album sold a fraction of what her 1995 breakthrough had.

Alanis played which role in Kevin Smith's 1999 film Dogma?

God. Kevin Smith first offered her the lead; she turned it down, later phoned to say she regretted it, and he handed her the one small part still open.

Which Police song did Alanis cover on her 1999 MTV Unplugged album?

King of Pain. Sting wrote it in Jamaica just after his first marriage broke up, when a black spot on the sun struck him as a picture of the state he was in.

Alanis's 2005 greatest-hits album led with her cover of which Seal song?

Crazy. She first sang it for a Gap advert, and said choosing it as a single poked fun at how she had been seen since the 1990s: first angry, then spiritual and 'kinda crazy'.

With which singer-songwriter did Alanis co-headline the 5 and a Half Weeks Tour in 1999?

Tori Amos. A year earlier Amos had said she liked Alanis but could hardly listen to her 1995 album, complaining that its sound 'would make a dog's ears hurt'.

Which 2002 album was the first Alanis wrote and produced entirely on her own?

Under Rug Swept. Its lead single 'Hands Clean', widely read as her account of a secret teenage relationship with a much older music-business figure, won her a Juno as producer.

What did Alanis reveal under her bathrobe while hosting the 2004 Juno Awards, in a jab at US broadcast censorship?

A flesh-coloured bodysuit, adorned with fake body parts. Two months after Janet Jackson's Super Bowl exposure, she told the crowd that Canadians 'still think the human body is beautiful'.

US radio refused Alanis's 2004 single 'Everything' until she swapped a swear word in its first line for which word?

Nightmare. Canadian stations kept playing the original, and when she hosted Canada's Juno Awards weeks later she said US radio was living in an era of fear.

Alanis's 2005 acoustic re-recording of her 1995 album was sold exclusively through which coffee chain?

Starbucks had the album to itself for six weeks, and the HMV chain in Canada hit back by pulling her other albums from its shelves.

Alanis's 2005 song "Wunderkind" earned a Golden Globe nomination for which film?

The Chronicles of Narnia. After seeing a rough cut of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe she wrote the song on a Friday and recorded it the next day, singing as the youngest sibling, Lucy.

Alanis's April Fools' Day 2007 viral video was a mournful piano cover of which Black Eyed Peas song?

My Humps. Fergie of the Black Eyed Peas found the slow, sorrowful version hilarious and sent her a cake shaped like a pair of buttocks.

Alanis's 2008 album Flavors of Entanglement was written after her breakup with which actor?

Ryan Reynolds. The pair had been engaged since 2004; she called making the record cathartic and said its song 'Torch' was really about her grief.

Which singer's 2020 album features Alanis on a duet titled 'Alanis' Interlude'?

Halsey, on the album Manic. She called Alanis 'the first artist I ever felt in my belly' and said the interlude stands for the powerful women who led her into adulthood.

Which country legend played rhythm guitar on Alanis's "To All the Boys I've Loved Before"?

Willie Nelson, who had the 1984 hit with Julio Iglesias as 'To All the Girls I've Loved Before'. Alanis switched the genders and said her version was less cheeky and more awed.

Alanis played obstetrician Dr. Audra Kitson in which Showtime series?

Weeds. Her no-nonsense Dr. Kitson treats the pregnant Nancy Botwin, the suburban mother turned marijuana dealer, and becomes the love interest of Nancy's brother-in-law Andy.

On which Nickelodeon sketch show did Alanis appear as a child in the 1980s?

You Can't Do That on Television. She was slimed like the rest of the cast, then spent her earnings on pressing her first single, most copies of which she says she gave away.

Alanis's 1991 dance-pop debut earned her a nickname as Canada's answer to which American pop star?

Debbie Gibson. The tag came from her dance-pop singles, big hair and shoulder pads, and by 17 she had a platinum album at home.

For which rapper was the teenage Alanis a concert opening act in the early 1990s?

Vanilla Ice. She was a teenage dance-pop singer warming up his crowd in 1991; five years later she won the Grammy for Album of the Year.

Which pop star brought Alanis on stage at her own Los Angeles show in 2022 to duet on 'You Oughta Know'?

Olivia Rodrigo. Then 19, she introduced it as the greatest break-up song ever written; the two had interviewed each other for a Rolling Stone cover the year before.

As a small child Alanis lived in which country while her parents taught at a Canadian military base?

West Germany. From 1977 the family lived in a Black Forest village while her parents taught at the Canadian base in Lahr; she learned German there and later forgot it.

The 2018 stage musical based on Alanis's 1995 album had a book by which Oscar-winning screenwriter?

Diablo Cody, who won her Oscar for the film Juno. She built an original story around the songs, about a suburban American family coming apart, and it won her a Tony as well.

The musical of Alanis's 1995 album lost the Best Musical Tony to which show?

Moulin Rouge!, which took ten Tonys at a ceremony delayed more than a year by the pandemic. The Alanis show turned its 15 nominations into two wins, for its book and for featured actress Lauren Patten.

In a 2000 episode of Sex and the City, Alanis's character kisses which of the four friends during spin the bottle?

Carrie. She is dating a bisexual man and joins his friends' party game, where the bottle Alanis spins lands on her; Alanis has since said she pitched the scene to the show herself.

On which HBO comedy did Alanis, playing herself, whisper to the star who 'You Oughta Know' is about?

Curb Your Enthusiasm. In the 2002 episode she confides the secret to Larry David, who then passes it on to smooth over a blunder of his own.

What was the title of Alanis's 2020 album, her first in eight years?

Such Pretty Forks in the Road. Due on 1 May 2020, it was held back three months by the pandemic, a call she says split the people around her.

What kind of album is Alanis's 2022 release The Storm Before the Calm?

Meditation music. She made its eleven ambient pieces during the pandemic and said the work kept her 'connected and accountable' at a time when she felt she might 'float away'.

Alanis's 2023 song "No Return" is a cover of the theme from which TV series?

Yellowjackets. Her version took the place of the usual theme over the opening credits during the show's 2023 season, and she said it was daunting to rework a song she called perfect.

Which rock veteran opened for Alanis on her 2024 Triple Moon Tour of the United States?

Joan Jett, with her band the Blackhearts. To promote the tour, a DJ spliced her hit 'I Hate Myself for Loving You' into Alanis's 'You Oughta Know' as a single mashup.

What is the stage name of rapper Mario Treadway, whom Alanis married in 2010?

Souleye. When they met in 2009 she was already a big fan, 'super crushed out' in her words, and never imagined they would date; they married the following May.

Jonathan Schwartz, jailed for six years in 2017 for stealing millions from Alanis, had held which job on her team?

Business manager. When confronted about the missing money, he claimed it was invested in an illegal marijuana-growing business, a story he later admitted was false.

Alanis sang at 2018's One Love Malibu benefit for victims of which wildfire?

The Woolsey Fire. Three weeks after it forced Malibu to evacuate, she co-headlined a benefit festival with Katy Perry and Gwen Stefani and dedicated a lyric about fire trucks to the firefighters.

Alanis's mother Georgia fled which country during a 1956 uprising?

Hungary. Her mother was six when the family escaped, and they hid their Jewish roots to protect the children; Alanis learned of them only in her late 20s.

The cover of Alanis's 1998 album prints precepts of which religion around a close-up of her open mouth?

Buddhism. The words come from the eight precepts, a code of conduct, and reflect the spiritual turn she took on her travels after 18 months of touring.

Before Canada's opening match of which 2026 tournament did Alanis sing 'O Canada' in Toronto?

FIFA World Cup. She sang the anthem before Canada faced Bosnia and Herzegovina; back in 2007 she had sung both the Canadian and American anthems before a Stanley Cup Final game.

What nickname has been given to Alanis for her 1990s persona?

Queen of Alt-Rock Angst, as Rolling Stone called her. She has said that in those years she was perceived as 'singularly man-hating, really angry, one-dimensionalised'.

Which institution inducted Alanis in 2026?

Songwriters Hall of Fame. Brandi Carlile sang 'Uninvited' with a string duo and then inducted her, and Alanis answered with two songs of her own that brought the room to its feet.

Whose birthday party was Alanis attending when she met her future fiancé?

Drew Barrymore's. She and the actor she met there were engaged by 2004; it ended in 2007, and she poured the break-up into her next album.

Alanis's "You Oughta Know" held the record for the longest run by a woman atop which chart until 2013?

Billboard Alternative Airplay. By her producer's account, Los Angeles station KROQ played the song once and the phones went wild; her five weeks at No. 1 stood until Lorde's 'Royals' in 2013.

Which teen drama used Alanis's 'Hand in My Pocket' as the theme of its pilot before she declined to license it?

Dawson's Creek. With her song off the table, the producers turned to Paula Cole's 'I Don't Want to Wait', which became the show's signature theme instead.

Whose 1986 hit 'Coming Around Again' did Alanis remake in 2025, with its original singer joining her on the track?

Carly Simon. Alanis remade the song for the film My Mother's Wedding with Simon singing behind her, and called it an honour to work with someone who had inspired her since she was a girl.

What working rule did Alanis and her producer follow while making her 1995 album?

Write and record one song a day. Each was written and demoed in one long session at his home studio, and those first vocal takes are the ones on the finished album.

As a teenage dance-pop act in 1992, Alanis won her first Juno Award in which category?

Most Promising Female Vocalist. The promise was kept four years later, when she won five Junos in one night with a very different, guitar-driven record.

Alanis reprised her Dogma role in a post-credits scene of which later Kevin Smith film?

Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. After the credits she shuts a book on Smith's linked run of New Jersey comedies, meant as a farewell to them; he went back to the same characters five years later.

In the 2003 Off-Broadway play The Exonerated, Alanis played Sunny Jacobs, who was what?

A freed death-row inmate. The real Sunny Jacobs was a young mother when she was jailed over killings she always denied, and her baby daughter had grown up without her by the time she got out.

In the 2004 Cole Porter biopic De-Lovely, Alanis performed which song?

She had a brief role as an anonymous stage performer in the film.

Alanis played Poppy, a lesbian character, in three episodes of which FX drama?

Nip/Tuck cast her against type as a fitness fanatic whose girlfriend, Liz, asks for liposuction just to keep up with her.

Which comedian played the minister at a fictional wedding for Alanis's character on NBC's Up All Night?

Maya Rudolph's character, the talk-show host Ava, takes the job because the bride, Alanis's Amanda, was once her partner in an R&B duo.

In 2009 Alanis ran a marathon to raise awareness for which cause?

Eating disorders: she had been anorexic and bulimic as a teenage pop singer, and said marathon training taught her to treat her body as an instrument, not an ornament.

In which animated Fox comedy did Alanis voice herself as a teenage girl's imaginary friend?

The Great North. Its 16-year-old heroine Judy, whose mother has left the family, takes her problems to an Alanis who appears to her in the northern lights over small-town Alaska.

How did Alanis respond to HBO's 2021 documentary about her life?

Disowned it: she stayed away from the premiere and said she had been interviewed at a very vulnerable time and lulled into a false sense of security, for a film that was 'not the story I agreed to tell'.