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BIOGRAPHY - Aviril Lavigne

 

Avril Ramona Lavigne is a Canadian singer-songwriter, fashion designer, actress and philanthropist. She was born in Belleville, Ontario, but spent the majority of her youth in the small town, Napanee, Ontario. By the age of 15, she had appeared on stage with Shania Twain, and by 16, Lavigne had signed a recording contract with Arista, now RCA Records. Record executive Antonio "L.A." Reid offered her a two-album deal worth more than $2 million. When she was 17 years old, Lavigne broke onto the music scene with her debut album, Let Go, released in 2002. Let Go made Lavigne the youngest female soloist to reach #1 in the UK, and the album was certified four-times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. As of 2009, over 16 million copies had been sold worldwide, more than 6 million of which were sold in the United States. In December 2007, Lavigne, with annual earnings of $12 million, was ranked number eight in the Forbes "Top 20 Earners Under 25". "Hot" was the third single and has been Lavigne's least successful single in the U.S., charting only at #95. In Canada, "Hot" made the top ten, and in Australia, the top 20. The Best Damn Thing has sold over 5 million copies worldwide. Avril Lavigne won nearly every award she was nominated for, including two World Music Awards for "World's Best selling Canadian Artist" and "World's Best Pop/Rock Female Artist". She took her first two MTV Europe Music Awards, received one Teen Choice Awards for "Summer Single", and was nominated for five Juno awards. In mid-2007, Lavigne was featured in a two-volume graphic novel, Avril Lavigne's Make 5 Wishes. She collaborated with artist Camilla D'Errico and writer Joshua Dysart on the manga, which was about a shy girl named Hana who, upon meeting her hero Avril Lavigne, learned to overcome her fears. Lavigne said, "I know that many of my fans read manga, and I'm really excited to be involved in creating stories that I know they will enjoy." The volumes were released on 10 April (one week prior to the release of The Best Damn Thing) and in July, respectively. The publication Young Adult Library Services nominated the series for "Great Graphic
Novels for Teens".

In March 2008, Lavigne undertook a world tour named The Best Damn Tour to support the album. In that same month, she also appeared on the cover of Maxim for the second time of her career. In mid-August, Malaysia's Islamic opposition party, the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party, attempted to ban Lavigne's show in Kuala Lumpur, judging her stage moves "too sexy". Her concert on 29 August was considered as promoting wrong values ahead of Malaysia's independence day on 31 August. On 21 August 2008, MTV reported that the concert had been approved by the Malaysian government. Only a month after completing The Best Damn Tour, Lavigne began recording in her home studio in November 2008 with the song "Black Star", written to help promote her first fragrance of the same name. By July 2009, nine tracks had been recorded for the new album, including the songs "Fine", "Everybody Hurts" and "Darlin". Several of the tracks were written in Lavigne's youth. "Darlin" was the second song Lavigne wrote as a 15 year old while living in Napanee, Ontario. Lavigne described the album as being about "life". She stated,"It's so easy for me to do a boy-bashing pop song, but to sit down down and write honestly about something that's really close to me, something I've been through, it's a totally different thing." The album is expected to be a return to Lavigne's older musical style and may be largely acoustic. With the exception of the album's lead single, "What the Hell", Lavigne described the songs on the album as different from her earlier material: "I'm older now, so I think that comes across in my music, it's not as pop-rock". In January 2010, while simultaneously writing and recording for her new album, Lavigne worked with Disney on Alice in Wonderland-themed clothing designs, inspired by Tim Burton's feature film, Alice in Wonderland. She asked the executives if she could write a song for the film. The result was the song "Alice", which was played over the end credits and included on the soundtrack, Almost Alice. On 28 February, Lavigne gave a performance at the concert portion of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics closing ceremony, performing "My Happy Ending" and "Girlfriend". Lavigne was honoured to perform at the ceremonies, but she regretted not being able to attend the U.S. vs. Canada hockey match. "They had us on lockdown. We weren't allowed to leave our trailers, for security purposes." In September, Lavigne's third single from her debut album, "I'm With You", was sampled by Rihanna on the track "Cheers (Drink to That)", which is featured on Rihanna's fifth studio album, Loud.

The release dates for Goodbye Lullaby and its lead single were pushed back several times. In response to these delays, Lavigne said, "I write my own music and therefore, it takes me longer to put out records "cause I have to live my life to get inspiration," and that she had enough material for two records. In November, Lavigne was featured in Maxim, where she revealed that Goodbye Lullaby took two and a half years to complete, but she cited her record company as the reason for the album's delays, stating that the album had been completed for a year. Goodbye Lullaby is scheduled to be released March 8. The lead single, "What the Hell", was premiered on Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve on December 31. In December 2010, American singer Miranda Cosgrove released "Dancing Crazy", a song written by Lavigne, Max Martin and Shellback.

Visit artist website at www.avrillavigne.com/us/home

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