Alanis Morissette makes statement on Rock Hall 2022 absence and “anti-woman sentiment” in music industry

Alanis Morissette has opened up about why she dropped out of her scheduled performance at this year’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony.

The singer was set to appear onstage during the ceremony, which took place at the Microsoft Theatre in Los Angeles on Saturday night (November 5). It was originally planned that she would duet Carly Simon‘s ‘You’re So Vain’ alongside Olivia Rodrigo, in honour of the inductee, who was unable to attend the ceremony. However, Morissette withdrew from the event, and Rodrigo performed the song without her.

As Variety reports, Morissette participated in rehearsals on Friday (November 4) and was listed on in-house runsheets for Saturday night’s filming. The majority of the audience was unaware that Morissette was scheduled to appear onstage, as no official line-up of performers for the event had been announced publicly ahead of time.

In a post shared to her Instagram Stories on Monday (November 7), Morissette responded to what she called “mis-informed rumblings” regarding her decision not to appear at this weekend’s induction ceremony.

She began by making clear that her issue was not with Simon, Rodrigo – who inducted Morissette into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame in September – or any of the other artists who appeared as part of the ceremony over the weekend, such as Dolly Parton, Janet Jackson and Pat Benatar.

“I have spent decades in an industry that is rife with an overarching anti-woman sentiment and have tolerated a lot of condescension and disrespectfulness, reduction, dismissiveness, contract-breaching, unsupportiveness, exploitation and psychological violence (and more) throughout my career,” she wrote.

“I tolerated it because nothing would stop me from connecting with those whom I cared about and resonated with,” she continued. “I live to serve and connect with people and so over the years I sucked it up on more occasions than I can count in order to do so. It’s hard not to be affected in any industry around the world, but Hollywood has been notorious for its disrespect of the feminine in all of us.”

While not explicitly outlining the sexism she allegedly experienced while working on the production, Morissette said that she is “at a point in my life where there is no need for me to spend time in an environment that reduces women.”

She continued: “I have had countless incredible experiences with production teams with all genders throughout my life. So many, and so fun. There is nothing better than a team of diverse people coming together with one mission. I’ll continue to show up in those environments with bells on.”

Simon was one of several artists inducted into the Rock Hall’s Class of 2022 over the weekend, alongside Eminem, Parton, Duran Duran, Eurythmics, Lionel Richie, Judas Priest, Benatar and more.

Simon was unable to attend the ceremony due to a “personal tragedy” – both of her sisters recently died from cancer one day apart from each other. In a statement read by Sara Bareilles, Simon said she was “humbled, shocked, proud, overachieved and underqualified and singularly grateful” to be inducted.

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