After a summer full of concerts across the United Kingdom, Alanis Morissette (Ottawa, 52 years old) does not rest. This September she will perform at the Soaring Eagle Casino & Resort in Michigan and at Riot Fest in Chicago, and in November she has several concerts scheduled in Los Angeles, as part of her Butterfly with a machete tour. Who will no longer accompany the Canadian singer at all these events is Keren Urinov, her now former tour manager, whom Morissette has sued for threatening to incriminate her for drug trafficking. In court documents filed on September 1 in a Los Angeles court and obtained by People, the singer-songwriter accuses Urinov, director of her 2025 tour, of civil extortion, fraud, and negligent misrepresentation, as reported by TMZ.
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“Plaintiff Alanis Morissette is the victim of a premeditated blackmail campaign orchestrated by a resentful former tour manager. Morissette will not accept working with an incompetent blackmailer for the next 15 years nor pay a ransom under threat,” the lawsuit states. In it, the singer claims more than $75,000 — about 64,500 euros at the current exchange rate — in damages.
It all dates back to July 2025, when the nine-time Grammy winner and her team — including Urinov — were at a UK airport to travel to Spain, where she was scheduled to perform several concerts, according to court documents. The performer of You Oughta Know and her legal team allege that the tour manager was selected for inspection and detained at the airport and later informed Morissette that British authorities had arrested her and issued a seizure order for possession of marijuana and xylazine — a strong sedative and muscle relaxant used in veterinary medicine. According to the submitted documentation, Urinov then showed the agents her Israeli license for medical marijuana use and was released.
Up to that point, everything apparently resolved well, but after the tour, Urinov and her lawyers sent Morissette several “increasingly extortionate” letters threatening to sue her, as the artist describes. “Morissette claims that Urinov demanded she tell British police that the drugs were hers or face a lawsuit,” details People. The documents obtained by the American outlet indicate that Urinov stated the singer-songwriter could “end the matter” with a full-time 15-year employment contract that included “an income equivalent to that of a tour manager with annual raises and bonuses.” When the Hands in My Pocket singer refused what she now calls “brazen demands,” Urinov and her lawyer allegedly responded with a letter implying they would accuse the singer of drug trafficking.
The artist states in the papers that she filed the lawsuit “reluctantly” and that she had “no choice” but to protect herself against “manifestly unfounded” accusations. So far, neither Urinov nor she have made public statements about it.
This is not the first time Morissette has felt betrayed by a trusted employee. In 2017, her then-manager, Jonathan Todd Schwartz, admitted to stealing $4.8 million from his client and was sentenced to six years in prison.
Morissette participated at the end of August in Daisy Chain Fields, the festival organized by Olivia Rodrigo with an exclusively female lineup. “This is what it looks like when women and the feminine take the lead. Thank you so much for inviting me to sing Ironic with you,” wrote the Canadian on her Instagram profile — with 1.7 million followers — along with a video of the concert in which she ends up embracing Rodrigo. Her latest post, from September 4, is a tribute to feminist writer Gloria Steinem, who passed away a day earlier.
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