Alanis Morissette has become an American citizen, but insists she isn't turning her back on Canada.

The Ottawa-born singer/songwriter joined 4,500 others who took the U.S. citizenship oath during a ceremony at the Los Angeles Convention Center last Friday.

But in a statement released yesterday by her publicist, Marcee Rondan, Morissette says she's still Canadian.

"I will never renounce my Canadian citizenship," she said. "I consider myself a Canadian-American."

Morissette, who lives in Los Angeles but maintains an Ottawa home, gave no reason for her decision to become an American, although she did suggest there was more to it than tax benefits.

"There was a turning point during the ceremony where I felt connected to this country in a way that I didn't quite expect," Morissette said. "America has been really great to me and I have felt welcomed since the day I came here."

Morissette had to fulfil several requirements for U.S. citizenship, including that she have "a good moral character" and exhibit a "favourable disposition toward the United States." She also had to pay a fee, pass a citizenship test and recite the oath of allegiance.

When it came time for the crowd to sing the American anthem during the ceremony, she said she wanted a chance to sing it solo.

"I wanted to walk up to one of the officials to ask if I could sing the anthem," she said.

Instead, during her set later that night at Los Angeles' House of Blues, Morissette treated the audience to an impromptu version of the Star Spangled Banner.

Morissette became a U.S. citizen the same week she appeared on CTV's Degrassi: Next Generation, where she lived up to her hoser roots by wearing a Maple Leafs jersey, plaid lumber jacket, fur hat and fringed suede skirt

Ironically, on the show she responded to a joke about Prime Minister Paul Martin revoking her Canadian citizenship by taking a jab at his American counterpart.

"Where am I going to hide out for four more years of Bush in the States?" her character asks.

Morissette follows in the footsteps of other Canadian-born stars who made it big south of the border and went on to become Americans, like Jim Carrey and Pamela Anderson.

Though she spent her teen years building a singing career in Canada, it wasn't until Morissette switched gears and Americans embraced her album Jagged Little Pill in 1995 that she shot to worldwide stardom.

-- Files from AP