Alanis Morissette 2007
 Maverick Records released Jagged Little Pill internationally in 1995. The album was expected to sell enough for Morissette to make a follow-up, but the situation changed quickly when a DJ from an influential Los Angeles radio station began playing You Oughta Know, the album's first single. The song instantly garnered attention for its scathing, explicit lyrics, and a subsequent music video went into heavy rotation on MTV and MuchMusic.
After the success of You Oughta Know, the album's other hit singles helped send Jagged Little Pill to the top of the charts. All I Really Want and Hand in My Pocket followed, but the fourth U.S. single, Ironic, became Morissette's biggest hit. You Learn and Head over Feet, the fifth and sixth singles, respectively, kept Jagged Little Pill in the top twenty on the Billboard 200 albums chart for more than a year. According to the RIAA, Jagged Little Pill is the best-selling international debut album by a female artist, with more than fourteen million copies sold in the U.S.; it sold thirty million worldwide, making it the second biggest selling album by a female artist, and the biggest selling debut album of all time. Morissette's popularity grew significantly in Canada, where the album was certified twelve times platinum and produced four RPM chart-toppers: Hand in My Pocket, Ironic, You Learn and Head over Feet. The album was also a bestseller in Australia and the United Kingdom.
Morissette's success with Jagged Little Pill was credited with leading to the introduction of female singers such as Tracy Bonham, Meredith Brooks, Patti Rothberg and, in the early 2000s, Avril Lavigne and Pink. She was criticised for collaborating with producer and supposed image-maker Ballard, and her previous albums also proved a hindrance for her respectability, particularly in her native country. Morissette and the album won six Juno Awards in 1996: Album of the Year, Single of the Year (You Oughta Know), Female Vocalist of the Year, Songwriter of the Year and Best Rock Album. At the 1996 Grammy Awards, she won Best Female Rock Vocal Performance, Best Rock Song (both for You Oughta Know), Best Rock Album and Album of the Year.
Later in 1996, Morissette embarked on an eighteen-month world tour in support of Jagged Little Pill, beginning in small clubs and ending in large venues. Taylor Hawkins, currently with the Foo Fighters, was the tour's drummer. Ironic was nominated for two 1997 Grammy Awards — Record of the Year and Best Music Video, Short Form — and won Single of the Year at the 1997 Juno Awards, where Morissette also won Songwriter of the Year and the International Achievement Award. The video Jagged Little Pill, Live, which was co-directed by Morissette and chronicled the bulk of her tour, won a 1998 Grammy Award for Best Music Video, Long Form.
During the tour, Morissette became disillusioned with the music industry and declared being tired of constant travelling, quick and superficial relationships and parties full of drugs — subjects that made her consider ditching her career.[citation needed] She started practicing Iyengar Yoga for balancing, and after the last December 1996 show, she headed to India for six weeks, accompanied by her mother, two aunts and two female friends.
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