Highlights
- Alanis Morissette sued ex-tour manager Keren Urinov for fraud, extortion and negligent misrepresentation.
- Urinov allegedly threatened to falsely report Morissette for drug trafficking unless given a 15-year contract.
- Urinov’s alleged $70,000 hotel booking mistake is cited in the lawsuit as proof of poor tour management.
Alanis Morissette says she won’t pay to make a blackmail threat disappear, and now it’s headed to court.
The singer sued her former tour manager, Keren Urinov, in U.S. court on Tuesday, accusing her of orchestrating a months-long blackmail scheme that started after Morissette’s 2025 summer tour wrapped. Morissette, the ’90s hitmaker behind “You Oughta Know” and “Ironic,” had brought Urinov on to run that tour.
The complaint, obtained and first reported by Billboard, was written by entertainment attorney Howard King. It names Urinov, who spent nine years running Live Nation’s Israeli operations before Morissette hired her to manage the tour. Live Nation itself is not named as a defendant.
According to the filing, the dispute traces back to July 12, 2025, when British Border Force agents seized a bag containing marijuana and xylazine, a non-opioid animal tranquilizer, at an airport. Urinov reportedly admitted on the spot that the bag belonged to her.
Morissette claims that admission later became a weapon. The lawsuit says Urinov began sending letters demanding a 15-year, full-time contract as tour director with major compensation, threatening to tell British authorities the drugs were Morissette’s instead if she refused.
The complaint frames the ultimatum as extortion, not negotiation. It states Morissette won’t spend the next 15 years working with an “incompetent blackmailer,” let alone hand over a payout to make the threat disappear.
TMZ, which independently obtained the filing, notes Urinov was only “temporarily employed” as tour manager, a detail that undercuts her demand for a permanent post overseeing tours well beyond the one she was hired for.
The suit is equally pointed about Urinov’s performance on the job it says she’s unqualified to keep. It cites a hotel booking error that allegedly cost the tour $70,000 as evidence of mismanagement during the 2025 run.
Morissette is suing for fraud, civil extortion and negligent misrepresentation. She’s seeking unspecified financial damages and, according to the complaint, wants the case to force Urinov’s scheme into the open.
The filing adds to an already contentious legal picture. Law360 reported on Aug. 26 that Morissette had already been sued in London by a Live Nation executive in the company’s Israeli unit, a filing that predates this week’s complaint by roughly a week and appears connected to the same fallout from the tour. Law360’s report didn’t detail the specific claims in that suit, and it’s not yet clear how the two cases intersect.
Urinov’s law firm did not immediately return Billboard’s request for comment on the new lawsuit.
None of the allegations, from either side, has been tested in court, and both cases remain in early stages. Tuesday’s filing marks the latest escalation in a working relationship that soured almost as soon as the tour wrapped. What’s on the record for now is one artist’s detailed account of feeling cornered by a former employee, and her decision to fight rather than pay.
