Avril Lavigne

Avril Ramona Lavigne (/ˈævrɨl ləˈviːn/; av-ril lə-veen; born 27 September 1984) is a Canadian singer-songwriter. She was born in Belleville, Ontario, and spent most of her youth in the town of Napanee. By the age of 15, she had appeared on stage with Shania Twain, by 16 she had signed a two-album recording contract with Arista Records worth more than $2 million. In 2002, when she was 17 years old, Lavigne entered the music industry with her debut album Let Go, becoming one of the most popular pop punk artists, a reason she earned her reputation of a ‘skater punk’ persona and "pop punk princess"[2][3]. Since her professional debut she has sold more than 30 million albums and over 50 million singles worldwide.[4]

Let Go made Lavigne the youngest female soloist to reach number 1 in the UK. As of 2013, it has sold nearly 7 million copies in the United States[5] and over 17 million copies worldwide.[6] Her breakthrough single, "Complicated", peaked at number 1 in many countries around the world, as did the album Let Go. Her second studio album, Under My Skin, was released in May 2004 and was her first album to peak at number 1 on the U.S. Billboard 200, eventually selling more than 10 million copies worldwide. The Best Damn Thing, Lavigne’s third album, was released in 2007, becoming her third number 1 album in the UK Albums Chart and featuring her first U.S. Billboard Hot 100 number 1 single, "Girlfriend". Lavigne has scored six number-one singles worldwide, including "Complicated", "Sk8er Boi", "I'm with You", "My Happy Ending", "Nobody's Home", and "Girlfriend". Lavigne is one of the top-selling artists releasing albums in the U.S., with over 11 million copies certified by the RIAA. Her fourth studio album, Goodbye Lullaby, was released in March 2011. Goodbye Lullaby gave Lavigne her fourth top 10 album on the U.S. Billboard 200 and the UK Albums Chart and her third number 1 album in both Japan and Australia. Three months after the release of Goodbye Lullaby, Lavigne began work on her eponymous titled fifth studio album, which was released by Epic Records on 1 November 2013[7][8][9] following her departure from RCA Records in 2011.

Lavigne took a break from recording music, pursuing careers in feature film acting and designing clothes and perfumes. She voiced a character in the animated film Over the Hedge in 2006. That same year, she made her on-screen feature film debut in Fast Food Nation. In 2008, Lavigne introduced her clothing line, Abbey Dawn, and in 2009, she released her first perfume, Black Star, which was followed by her second perfume, Forbidden Rose, in 2010 and her third perfume, Wild Rose, in 2011. In July 2006, Lavigne married her boyfriend of two years, Deryck Whibley, lead singer and guitarist for Sum 41. The marriage lasted four years, and in October 2009, Lavigne filed for divorce. Whibley and Lavigne continued to work together, with Whibley producing her fourth album, as well as Lavigne's single, "Alice", written for Tim Burton's film Alice in Wonderland. Lavigne married Nickelback frontman Chad Kroeger in 2013.

Contents [hide]

1 Early life

2 Music career

2.1 2000–03: Let Go

2.2 2004–05: Under My Skin

2.3 2006–08: The Best Damn Thing

2.4 2009–11: Goodbye Lullaby

2.5 2012–present: Avril Lavigne

3 Musical style and songwriting

4 Other work

4.1 Film career

4.2 Fashion design

4.3 Philanthropy

5 Personal life

5.1 Public image

5.2 Tattoos

5.3 French citizenship

5.4 Relationships

5.4.1 Marriage to Deryck Whibley

5.4.2 Marriage to Chad Kroeger

6 Backing band

7 Filmography

8 Discography

9 Concerts

10 See also

11 References

12 External links

Early life

Avril Ramona Lavigne was born in Belleville, Ontario. Her father, Jean-Claude Joseph Lavigne,[10] named her "Avril" after the French word for the month of April. At the age of two, she began singing church songs with her mother,[11] Judith-Rosanne "Judy" (née Loshaw). Judy recognized her two-year-old daughter's talents after hearing her sing "Jesus Loves Me" in church.[12] Lavigne has an older brother, Matthew, and a younger sister, Michelle,[13] both of whom teased her when she sang. "My brother used to knock on the wall because I used to sing myself to sleep and he thought it was really annoying."[12] Her father is of French descent and her mother has English, Scottish, and German ancestry.[14]

Dundas Street, one of the two main streets in Greater Napanee

When Lavigne was five years old, the family moved to Napanee, Ontario,[11] a town with a population of approximately 5,000.[15][16][17] Although she has been struggling with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)[18][19] since she was a child and was sometimes kicked out of class for misbehaving, her parents supported her singing. Her father bought her a microphone, a drum kit, a keyboard, and several guitars, and converted their basement into a studio; following his own love for music Jean-Claude lead the family to church at Third Day Worship Center in Kingston, ON where he often played bass. When Lavigne was 14, her parents would take her to karaoke sessions.[20] Lavigne also performed at country fairs, singing songs by Garth Brooks, The Dixie Chicks, and Shania Twain. She also began writing her own songs. Her first song was called "Can't Stop Thinking About You", about a teenage crush, which she described as "cheesy cute".[21]

"I've known all my life that this is what I was supposed to do..... Visualizing like what it would be like to be famous with my music. And always just dreaming, always daydreaming." – Avril Lavigne[20]

In 1999,[22] Lavigne won a radio contest to perform with fellow Canadian singer Shania Twain at the Corel Centre in Ottawa, before an audience of 20,000 people.[11][15] Twain and Lavigne sang "What Made You Say That",[11] and Lavigne told Twain that she was going to be "a famous singer".[15] During a performance with the Lennox Community Theatre, Lavigne was spotted by local folksinger Stephen Medd. He invited her to contribute vocals on his song, "Touch the Sky", for his 1999 album, Quinte Spirit. She later sang on "Temple of Life" and "Two Rivers" for his follow-up album, My Window to You, in 2000. In December 1999, Lavigne was discovered by her first professional manager, Cliff Fabri, while singing country covers at a Chapters bookstore in Kingston, Ontario.[11][15] Fabri sent

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