Capital Builders: Alanis, the Ottawa girl who took the world by storm

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Ottawa rock radio host Kath Thompson often invited the Ottawa teenager on air to chat about her promising career as a pop singer.

But like everyone else in town, Thompson was flabbergasted when that confident young woman with the big hair and the bigger smile left Ottawa and returned a couple of years later with a searing song that hit the pop world like a Molotov cocktail.

Alanis Morissette had unleashed “You Oughta Know,” a raw anthem about a duplicitous lover: “Did you forget about me, Mr. Duplicity? Are you thinking of me when you f### her?” She wrote it when she was 20.

“I was so wonderfully shocked,” says Thompson. “Such a great song … she was telling a story, you’re not sure how autobiographical it was, but it sure felt that way… Oh My God!

“Then the rest of the album came out. It was spectacular.”

The album, of course, was Jagged Little Pill. The 1995 release was hailed as a generation-defining masterpiece. Another track on the album, the playful pop tune Ironic, became a monster hit single.

Alanis Morissette was already well-known in Canada, but Jagged Little Pill catapulted her into the ranks of international superstardom. Overnight, she became the most famous singer hailing from Ottawa since Paul Anka became a teen pop idol in the 1950s.


Alanis Morissette-early photo


Alanis – she’s so famous now that no last name is required – hasn’t live in Ottawa since she graduated from Glebe Collegiate. Southern California has been her home for two decades. But we still have bragging rights. And Alanis has made an impact on the city just as surely as she helped shake up the music world.

Before Alanis, says Thompson, “What had come out of Ottawa?

“A few things, but … Not female singer-songwriters who change the world and open up the door for a whole generation of female singer-songwriters.”

For other local musicians, and anyone else striving for the top of their field, it was a vote of confidence, she says. “It shows you can come from anywhere.

“I hope it said to a lot of people that you have to come from some place, why not Ottawa?”

Canadian radio programmers were initially reluctant to play You Oughta Know, and not just because of the explicit lyrics, says Thompson. Alanis was known as a dance-pop singer, and the song didn’t fit any category. “It was alternative sounding, (not like) rock radio. Can we play Alanis and then play AC/DC?”

There was no such hesitation south of the border, says Thompson. “In the U.S., they said, ‘here’s where it fits – at the top of the charts.’ ”

alanis-morissette-and-stephan-klovanhandout.jpeg

Alanis Morissette in her teen years with manager Stephan Klovan.


Dominic D’Arcy, Ottawa’s “singing policeman,” met Alanis when she was about 10 after he performed at her school. He was blown away by her big voice, and invited Alanis and her brother Wade to accompany him and other child stars at performances around Ottawa. “Every time she would come out to my show, she would steal it,” he says cheerfully.

“She made people feel good when she came back here to sing here, because she’s world-famous, and she’s from Ottawa.”

Alanis has returned to Ottawa over the years – for concerts, to visit her parents, to sing the national anthem at a Senators’ game. But since her triumphant return to collect the keys of the city in 1996, no one’s made a big deal over her. A very modest street near the South Keys shopping centre – it’s more like a long laneway – was christened Alanis Private.

It felt as if the slim thread that kept her attached to the city was broken after Alanis sold her luxury condo in the ByWard Market last summer. She had owned the two-bedroom condo on Boteler Street, with its spectacular views of the Ottawa River, since 2001.

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Alanis Morissette’s condo on Boteler Street reflected her love of Eastern design influences, and was furnished with artifacts from her global travels. It sold this summer for near the asking price of $989,000.


But Alanis will always be an important part of the history and fabric of this city, says Kathie Donovan, a former CJOH entertainment reporter who interviewed her after Jagged Little Pill was released.

“She was on the cutting edge of this concept of authenticity, which is a catchphrase now. But back then, she had to be extremely courageous to just be who she was. In the industry, there was always that model of cute girl, nice music. But Alanis just told it like it was.

“She stood out because women were not, we didn’t feel that courageous, to be that authentic and not care what people thought, generally speaking.

“She was authentically Alanis. In the music industry, people work to fit themselves into what they think will provide them with success. She was like ‘I don’t care, this is who I am.’ And that’s what made her so powerful.” It’s sad, adds Donovan, that Alanis had to leave Ottawa to find global success.

So we haven’t had a front-row seat as Alanis headed into adulthood, a sensitive, intense young woman who wrestled with her sudden fame and struggled with an eating disorder and depression.

Alanis says the aftermath of Jagged Little Pill left her with PTSD. “There was a period of time during the Jagged Little Pill era where I don’t think I laughed for about two years,” she told The Guardian newspaper in 2012. “It was a survival mode, you know. It was an intense, constant, chronic over-stimulation and invasion of energetic and physical literal space.

GALLERY:
Photos: Alanis Morissette


  • Alanis Morissette on Christmas Eve as a young child in Germany. Alanis.com /-


  • After an exhausting tour in 2006, Alanis Morissette said she "came home and laid down in front of this fire and didn't move for 48 hours for how exhausted I was." Alanis.com /-


  • Alanis Morissette and brother Wade as the Dalmy Kids, about 1987 /-


  • Alanis Morissette-early photo /-


  • Cover of Alanis Morissette's first record, Fate Stay With Me. 1985 /-


  • Alanis Morissette October 1990 -- World Exchange Plaza Opening -- Mila Mulroney, Stephan Klovan, Morissette, MCA vice-president John Alexander. /PC /-


  • Alanis Morissette in her teen years with manager Stephan Klovan. /-


  • After an exhausting tour in 2006, Alanis Morissette said she "came home and laid down in front of this fire and didn't move for 48 hours for how exhausted I was." Alanis.com /-


  • Alanis Morissette at age 19, recording "You Learn" for the album Jagged Little Pill.


  • Alanis Morissette in concert June 20, 1995 Paul Latour


  • 1996-97: Alanis Morissette with Madonna on the Jagged Little Pill tour. Madonna's Maverick Records released the album. /-


  • Alanis Morissette became an international star with the release of her landmark album, Jagged Little Pill. Bruno Schlumberger




  • Alanis Morissette appears 'naked' in a body suit at the Juno Awards at Rexall Place Sunday. Ed Kaiser/Edmonton Journal


  • Alanis Morisette in her nude suit at the 2004 Juno Awards Ceremony at Rexall Place in Edmonton, Alta., Sunday April 4, 2004. /Sean Kilpatrick, Edmonton Sun SPECIAL TO THE SUN


  • Alanis Morissette arrives at the 2015 Juno Awards at the FirstOntario Centre on March 15, 2015 in Hamilton, Canada. The awards are coming to Ottawa for 2017. George Pimentel/WireImage


  • Alanis Morissette at the red carpet arrivals for the 2015 JUNO Awards in Hamilton, Ont. on Sunday March 15, 2015. Dave Abel/Dave Abel/Toronto Sun/QMI Agency


  • Ottawa native Alanis Morissette sang the national anthems for game four of the Stanley Cup Final between the Ottawa Senators and Anaheim Ducks Sean Kilpatrick/Sean Kilpatrick/Sun


  • Alanis Morissette sings the national anthems prior to the game opposing the Ottawa Senators and the Anaheim Ducks in the fourth game of the Stanley Cup Final held in Ottawa at Scotiabank Place, Monday, June 04, 2007. Jean Levac/OTT


  • Alanis Morissette performs at Massey Hall on October 8, 2008. /Ernest Doroszuk, Toronto Sun


  • Alanis Morissette and boyfriend Ryan Reynolds during the red carpet at ED KAISER/Edmonton Journal


  • Alanis Morissette during her furious performance at the Hammerstein Ballroom. Rock's avenging banshee returned to claim her loyal audience with an album, 'Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie,' of song therapy: wailing and crooning about all kinds of past turbulence, from eating disorders to crippling depression. Sara Krulwich/NYT


  • Alanis Morissette will release a memoir this spring. George Pimentel/WireImage


  • Artist Alanis Morissette receives her achievement from the Canadian Music Hall of Fame during the 2015 Juno Awards in Hamilton, Ont., on Sunday, March 15, 2015. Although they only took one award between them, Morissette and Leonard Cohen turned out to be the big winners at this year's Juno Awards. Nathan Denette/THE CANADIAN PRESS


  • Alanis Morissette is about to become a guest advice columnist for the Guardian's weekend magazine.


  • Musician Alanis Morissette poses on the red carpet as she arrives for the premiere of "Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time" at Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood on April 17, 2010. MARK RALSTON/Postmedia Wire


  • Singer Alanis Morissette performs onstage during the NBC's "Today" Show concert series at Rockefeller Center on May 23, 2008 in New York City. Bryan Bedder/Getty Images


  • Lisboa music festival at Bela Vista Park in Lisbon on May 31, 2008.


  • Musician Alanis Morissette poses on the red carpet as she arrives for the premiere of "Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time" at Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood on April 17, 2010. MARK RALSTON/AFP


  • 2004 Juno host Alanis Morissette. Handout photo


  • Alanis Morissette's Ottawa apartment overlooks the Ottawa River and parliament Hill. The singer-songwriter, who grew up in Ottawa, did major renovations to the two-bedroom apartment after buying it, and says of all her homes, it most reflects her own tastes. Screen Capture/MTV Cribs


  • Alanis Morissette is one of the music stars to come from Ottawa. A new report suggests the city needs to do more to building up the business locally. Michelle Siu/Canadian Press


  • Singer/songwriter Alanis Morissette spoke with National Post writer Ben Kaplan about her new album Havoc and Bright Lights at Toronto's Park Hyatt Hotel, Thursday August 2, 2012. /National Post


  • Alanis Morissette leaves with her mother Georgia from the Shepherds of Good Hope on Murray St. in the Market area of Ottawa. Alanis, going under the name "Lani", volunteered over the lunch hour with her mother and aunt. Errol McGihon/Ottawa Sun Photo Errol McGihon


  • Alanis Morissette /-


  • Alanis Morissette Mark van Manen/Vancouver Sun




  • Alanis, strolling with her husband Mario "Souleye" Treadway and son Ever. Her blog is full of posts about the joy she finds in life with hubby, kids and dogs. /-


  • Instagram photo of Alanis Morissette /-


  • Alanis Morissette and her band in concert in Southam Hall at the NAC JOHN MAJOR/Ottawa Citizen


  • Alanis Morissette with husband Mario "Souleye" Treadway, doing yoga. Alanis.com /-


  • At home in L.A.: Alanis Morissette with the rescue puppy she adopted and dubbed "Leelee." in the spring of 2016. credit: alanis.com /-


  • Alanis Morissette's baby girl, Onyx Solace Morissette-Treadway, born June 23, 2016. /-


  • Ottawa natives Alanis Morissette and Dan Kanter

“It was a profound violation. It felt like every millisecond I was attempting to set a boundary and say no and people were breaking into my hotel rooms and going through my suitcase and pulling my hair and jumping on my car.”

These days, Alanis seems serene and happy. On her blog, she muses on the importance of nurturing relationships, healing past traumas, meditating, connecting, channeling, hugging, awareness. She gushes over chakra-inspired oil/water/salt blend sprays and thousand-petal lotus oil. She makes pleas on behalf of charities, from the National Eating Disorder Association to an organization that provides eco-sustainable feminine hygiene products to the Third World. She posts pictures of exquisite hand-crafted rings and provides a recipe for vegetable soup.

Some of it’s baffling. She describes, for instance, waking up, bursting into tears, then retreating with a book to sit in the sun. “These tears and this deep breathing – they make space for the channeling of art, messages, wisdom, ideas. Which makes space for shifts and brave steps and visions and transformations and returns-home. This reflective time allows for a re-setting.”

But Alanis probably doesn’t care. She’s been made fun of for decades for spilling her guts, for being vulnerable, for expressing herself and exploring her inner world.

And after some crushing romances, she seems blissfully happy with her husband Mario “Souleye” Treadway and their two young children: son Ever, 6, and daughter Onyx, 13 months.

instagram-photo-of-alanis-morissette.jpeg

Alanis, strolling with her husband Mario “Souleye” Treadway and son Ever. Her blog is full of posts about the joy she finds in life with hubby, kids and dogs.


Alanis, by the numbers

33 million: The number of units Jagged Little Pill has sold worldwide. It’s one of the best-selling albums of all time.

5: The number of Grammy awards Morissette won for Jagged Little Pill. At the time, she was the youngest artist ever to win Album of the Year.

327: The ranking Jagged Little Pill received in the Rolling Stone list of 500 Greatest Albums of all Time.

60 million: Approximate total number of albums Morissette has sold during her career.

12: Number of Juno Awards Morissette has won.



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