In 2020 life seemed to smile on Alanis Morissette. After an eight-year break from music, she was back and busier than ever. With a new album coming out, she’s was on a world tour that would take her across Europe and the US having already played to hundreds of thousands of fans in Japan and Australia. In autumn 2019, a successful musical premiered on Broadway inspired by her 1995 number one hit album Jagged Little Pill. Co-written with Academy Award-winning screenwriter Diablo Cody, the stage production was praised by critics as “a moving anthem of our time.”
POSTPARTUM DEPRESSION
However busy she was, Morissette was never afraid to talk about her personal struggles. In 2019, for instance, the Canada-born Los Angeles-based singer gave birth to her third child. In a post on her blog, she opened up about postpartum depression, describing it as “a sneaky monkey with a machete working its way through my psyche and body and days and thoughts and bloodwork levels.”
CELEBRITY PROBLEMS
As a young woman, Morissette also went through hard times. A precocious kid brought up in Ottawa, she began writing songs at age nine and spent her teen years performing. When Jagged Little Pill came out – already her third album — she was only twenty-one. The album topped charts worldwide and changed her life completely. She would later admit that she was unable to manage the sudden fame it brought her, which caused her to suffer anorexia, bulimia and post-traumatic stress.
ASK ALANIS
In search of balance, Morissette started practising yoga and meditation and focusing on spiritual growth. Now she shares her experiences as a means of helping other people: she teaches self-careworkshops, and gives lectures on how to connect with one’s inner self. In 2016 she wrote a regular column in The Guardian newspaper called ‘Ask Alanis’, where she answered readers’ questions on issues like romantic relationships, parenting or addictions, and she has also hosted a popular podcast series in which she talked with authors and experts about physic and mental health. After facing the difficulties that fame and motherhood can bring, Morissette is ready to rock stadiums once again. Stronger and wiser than ever.
