Avril Lavigne

September 27, 1984 • Belleville, Ontario, Canada

Singer, songwriter

In 2002 an eighteen-year-old Canadian newcomer named Avril Lavigne swept on to the U.S. music scene with her debut disc, Let Go. By the end of the year, three singles from the album, including "Complicated," broke into the top ten of the Billboard charts, and Let Go was the second best-selling CD of the year. Lavigne's music scored high with fans and critics, but so did her personal style, which consisted of wearing loose pants, tank tops, and neckties. As a result, she sparked a fashion trend and was heralded in the press as a "skater-punk," an alternative to pop princesses, like Britney Spears (1981–), whose look and videos had started to become increasingly more provocative. In May 2004 Lavigne released her second album, Under My Skin, which debuted at number one not only in the United States, but also in many other countries, including Germany, Spain, and Japan. By the end of 2005 Avrilmania was showing no signs of slowing—Lavigne was performing to sold-out crowds on an extended concert tour and in April she took home top honors at the Juno Awards, which are considered to be the Canadian equivalent of the U.S. Grammy Awards.

Not a girlie-girl

Avril Ramona Lavigne was born on September 27, 1984, in Belleville, a small city in the eastern part of the province of Ontario, Canada. The second of three children, her father, John, was a technician for Bell Canada; mother Judy was a stay-at-home mom. When Lavigne was five, the family moved to Napanee, a farming town even smaller than Belleville with a total population of only five thousand. From the time she was a toddler Lavigne idolized her older brother, Matt, and insisted on trying to do anything he could do. As she explained to Chris Willman of Entertainment Weekly, "Ifhe played hockey, I had to play hockey. He played baseball, I wanted to." In fact, when Lavigne was ten she played in the Napanee boy's hockey league; she also became known as quite a baseball pitcher.

"Why should I care what other people think of me? I am who I am. And who I wanna be."

As she grew older Lavigne gained a reputation as a tomboy who preferred family outings like dirt biking or camping over dating. And in the tenth grade she discovered skateboarding, which became a particular passion. "I'm just not a girlie-girl," Lavigne laughingly told Willman. When not playing sports, however, she did pursue another interest—singing. The Lavignes were devout Christians and attended Evangel Temple in Napanee, where young Avril sang in the choir beginning at age ten. Soon she branched out and began singing at all types of venues, including county fairs, hockey games, and company parties. She primarily sang covers of songs made popular by country singers Martina McBride (1966–) and Faith Hill (1967–). Lavigne's parents bought her a sound machine to sing along with, and she practiced in front of a mirror at home for hours.

In 1998, when she was fourteen years old, Lavigne's first manager, Cliff Fabri, discovered her singing at a small performance in a local bookstore. When talking to Willman, Fabri described the young girl as a "frizzy-haired waif." But he liked Lavigne's voice, and he was especially impressed by her confident attitude. That same year, such confidence helped her win a contest to sing a duet with fellow Canadian Shania Twain (1965–) at the jam-packed Corel Centre in Ottawa. Even though it was her first time performing in front of twenty thousand people, Lavigne was fearless. As she told Willman, "I thought, 'This is what I'm going to do with my life."'

Lavigne lets go

Two years later, when she was sixteen, Fabri arranged for Lavigne to audition for L.A. Reid, head of Arista Records in New York City. After a fifteen-minute tryout Reid signed Lavigne to an amazing two-record, $1.25 million contract. The sixteen year old immediately dropped out of high school to devote herselfto working on her first album. At first producers offered Lavigne new country tunes to sing, but after six months the team was unable to write any actual songs, and it became apparent that things were not clicking. Reid then sent the singer to Los Angeles to work with a team of producers and writers known as The Matrix. When Lavigne arrived in L.A. Matrix producer Lauren Christy asked Lavigne what style she had in mind. As Christy relayed to Chris Willman, Lavigne had responded, "I'm 16. I want to rock out." That same day Lavigne and Matrix writers penned the first song for her album, "Complicated."

Lavigne's debut album, Let Go, was released on June 4, 2002, and within six weeks it had gone platinum, meaning over a million copies were sold. The single "Complicated," which received a great deal of radio airplay, reached number one on the adult Billboard charts; "I'm With You" also reached number one on the adult charts; and the catchy pop tune "Sk8er Boi" was a top-requested video on MTV and made it in the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100.

To promote the album Lavigne set out on a whirlwind publicity tour, making appearances on talk shows such as Late Night with David Letterman, and giving a series of concerts in Europe with her newly formed band, which was put together by her new management firm, Nettwerk. Most inexperienced singers are backed by seasoned musicians, but Nettwerk chose to go with young performers who were up and coming in the Canadian punk-rock scene. As Nettwerk manager Shauna Gold told Shanda Deziel of Maclean's, "[Lavigne] is young, her music's young, we needed a band that would fit well with who she is as a person."

And, after being away from her small-town home in Canada, Lavignewas beginning to form her own personal style. Initially publicists tried to market her like other teen pop stars, but Lavigne rebelled. "IfI was made up by the record label," she remarked to Lorraine Ali of Newsweek, "I'd have bleached-blonde hair and I'd probably be wearing a bra for a shirt." Instead, the singer-songwriter opted for a skater-punk look, which consisted of cut-off plaid pants, steel-toed Doc Martens, and tank tops worn with neckties. According to Ali, the five-foot-one tomboy "spawned a prepubescent army of Lavignettes" who snatched up her records and faithfully copied her outfits.

Finds independence with Under My Skin

By the end of 2002 Let Go had sold 4.9 million copies and was the second best-seller of the year just behind The Eminem Show. (By 2005 worldwide sales topped over fourteen million.) As 2003 progressed Lavigne continued to gather more fame and more accolades. She performed to sold-out crowds at her first North American concert tour; nabbed five Grammy nominations, including Song of the Year for "I'm With You"; and was named Best New Artist at the MTV Video Music Awards. In Canada Lavigne received six Juno nominations, winning four, including Best New Artist and Best Pop Album.

In the press Lavigne was deemed the leader of the pack of a new group of edgy, female singer-songwriters, which included Pink (1979–) and Michelle Branch (1983–). She also endured being called the "anti-Britney," referring to Britney Spears. In interviews Lavigne expressed her distaste for the label. "I don't like that term," she told Chris Willman. "It's stupid. She's a human being. God, leave her alone." But, in the same interview radio programmer Tom Poleman explained to Willman that Lavigne's popularity was partly thanks to her "anti-Britney" style. "Avril is much more the regular kid," Poleman commented. "For boys, she seems more attainable; girls can see themselves living more like her, dressing the same, being attracted to the same boys."

Canadian Punk Rockers: Sum 41

In June 2005 Avril Lavigne became engaged to her boyfriend of a year, Deryck Whibley (1980–), the lead singer of Canadian punk-pop group called Sum 41, whose members are known for their quick, catchy rock tunes and their highly energized live performances.

Sum 41 is composed of four musicians: drummer Steve "Stevo" Jocz, lead vocalist Deryck "Bizzy D" Whibley, lead guitarist Dave "Brownsound" Baksh, and bass player Jason "Cone" McCaslin. All four attended the same high school in Ajax, Ontario, and all played in various high school bands that performed in and around Toronto. In 1996, during the summer of their junior year, Jocz and Whibley decided to join forces and form their own band; they called it Sum 41 since the group was founded on the forty-first day of summer vacation. Jocz and Whibley tried out a number of bass players and guitarists before asking Baksh and McClasin to join the band. By 1999 the group was cemented and they began to create a unique sound that borrowed from all kinds of music, including hiphop, heavy metal, and alternative rock.

By late 1999 the foursome had created their own press kit, which included a ten-minute video featuring some of their musical numbers interspersed with clips of the band mates pulling pranks. They sent the kit off to several major record labels, and within a week Sum 41 was signed by Island Records. The band's first album, Half Hour of Power (2000), attracted little attention, but with 2001's All Killer No Filler Sum 41 began to reach an international fan base, especially because of the hit single "Fat Lip," which reached number sixty-six on the U.S. Billboard charts. The band attracted a loyal fol-lowing (who called themselves the Bomb Squad) particularly because of their on-stage antics. During Sum 41's 2001 Tour of the Rising Sun they pogo-jumped, participated in mock guitar battles, and urged the audience to join in rock song challenges.

The band released two more albums by the mid-2000s: Does This Look Infected? (2002) and Chuck (2004). The 2004 CD is named after Chuck Pelletier, a United Nations peacekeeper who was instrumental in saving the lives of the band members while they were making a documentary in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC; formerly Zaire). Since the late 1990s the Democratic Republic of Congo had been embroiled in the Second Congo War (1998–2002), a conflict that involved nine African nations, but that was centered in the DRC. Many artists from the United States and Canada have offered humanitarian aid to the citizens of the war-torn country. Although there is tentative peace in the DRC, military threats still exist for civilians. In April 2005 Chuck received the Rock Album of the Year prize at the Juno Awards, which are presented annually in Canada to honor achievement in the music industry.

Despite her hectic schedule Lavigne returned to the studio in 2003 to record her second album, which she was determined to make her own way. Although Lavigne did write several of the songs on Let Go, she did so with the help of a slew of producers. This time she flew to Los Angeles to work privately with Canadian singer-songwriter Chantal Kreviazuk (1973–); she also cowrote one song with guitarist Ben Moody (1980–) of the band Evanescence. Lavigne's record label, Arista, did not hear a single track until the newly independent singer was finished. "There was no way I was gonna write songs and send them to people to rewrite them like I did last time," Lavigne explained to Lorraine Ali. "I need to feel I'm doing this on my own."

Lavigne's second album, Under My Skin, was released on May 25, 2004, and debuted at number one on Billboard's U.S. album chart. It also sparked several popular singles, including "Don't Tell Me" and "My Happy Ending." Critics were consistently kind in their reviews, with Chuck Arnold of People applauding Lavigne for her "artistic independence" and praising her "rebellious spirit, racing rhythms, and tough-talking lyrics." Lorraine Ali pointed out that fans were seeing a more mature Lavigne, claiming her new songs "are rougher and darker" and her voice had lost some of its "girly high pitch." One song, in particular, received a good deal of attention—the emotional ballad "Slipped Away," which Lavigne wrote about the death of her grandfather.

Avril's "Happy Ending"

Some of the press surrounding Under My Skin came as a result of a twenty-one-city mall tour that Lavigne and her band embarked on just prior to the album's release. As Lavigne explained to Deborah Evans Price of Billboard, "We thought it would be cool to put on a free show and give back to the fans." Armies of Lavignettes turned out to demonstrate their support, and thousands of CDs were pre-sold even before the album's release. To encourage even more sales Lavigne again went out on the road doing nonstop interviews and heading out on a spring 2004 concert tour. According to Jill Kipnis of Billboard, twenty-six of the thirty-one shows sold out completely and the tour grossed over $9 million.

By the end of 2004 the twenty-year-old Lavigne was the one of America's top-selling entertainers. Her face graced the covers of teen magazines like CosmoGIRL!, and she was featured in articles in such national magazines as Time and Newsweek. She also completed her second sold-out concert tour, the Bonez Tour, which was launched in October. Lavigne ended the year by appearing on the soundtracks of two films, The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement and The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie.

In 2005, just three years after her debut album appeared, Lavigne was again the top-honored entertainer at Canada's Juno Awards. She received five nominations and took home three prizes, including the Best Artist award and a second win for Best Pop Album. Lavigne also announced that she would be adventuring more into film by lending her voice to a character in an animated movie called Over the Hedge, scheduled for a 2006 release. Perhaps the biggest bit of personal Lavigne news came in June 2005, when the Canadian "punk princess" became engaged to boyfriend Deryck Whibley (1980–), lead singer of the Canadian punk-rock group Sum 41.

Although she had only two albums under her belt, most music critics predicted that Avril Lavigne had a solid future. As USA Today correspondent Brian Mansfield told Billboard, "Avril's core audience may be a very young one, but she strikes me as the type of artist that a wide range of people respect and hope to see succeed. Those are the kind of artists who have long careers."

For More Information

Periodicals

Ali, Lorraine. "Anarchy on MTV? Tough Gals, Rejoice. Scrappy Skater Avril Lavigne Leads the Anti-Britney Revolution." Newsweek (December 30, 2002): p. 78.

Ali, Lorraine. "Nobody's Fool: Avril Lavigne Interview." Newsweek (March 22, 2004): p. 58.

Arnold, Chuck. "Under My Skin: Avril Lavigne." People (May 31, 2004): p. 45.

Burton, Rebecca Brown. "Q&A with Avril Lavigne." Time (May 31, 2004): p. 87.

Deziel, Shanda. "Avril's Edge." Maclean's (January 13, 2003): p. 22.

Kipnis, Jill. "Organizers Hope Lavigne Trek Has Happy Ending." Billboard (October 30, 2004): p. 16.

Mayfield, Geoff. "'Under' Puts Avril on Top." Billboard (June 12, 2004): p. 61.

Price, Deborah Evans. "Avril Goes Back to Basics: Mall Tour Kicks Off Album Publicity Blast." Billboard (May 22, 2004) pp. 1–4.

"Usher and Avril: Teen Vogue Celebrates Two on Top of Their Music." PR Newswire (October 12, 2004).

Willman, Chris. "Avril Lavigne: The Anti-Britney." Entertainment Weekly (November 1, 2002): p. 22.

Web Sites

Avril Lavigne Web Site.http://www.avrillavigne.com (accessed on August 23, 2005).

Sum 41 Web Site.http://www.islandrecords.com/sum41/site/home.las (accessed on August 23, 2005).

Avril Lavigne

Singer and songwriter

Born Avril Ramona Lavigne, September 27, 1984, in Belleville, Ontario, Canada; daughter of John and Judy Lavigne.

Addresses: Management—Nettwerk Management, 8730 Wilshire Blvd., Ste. 304, Beverly Hills, CA 90211. Record company—Arista Records, 6 W. 57th St., New York, NY 10019. Website—Avril Lavigne Official Website: http://www.avril-lavigne.com.

Career

Won contest to perform with Shania Twain, 1999; signed with Arista Records, 2002; released Let Go, 2002; released Under My Skin, 2004.

Awards: MTV Music Video Award, Best New Artist, 2003; Juno Award, Single of the Year for "Complicated," 2003; Juno Award, Album of the Year for Let Go, 2003; Juno Award, New Artist of the Year, 2003; SOCAN Awards for "Complicated," "Sk8er Boi," and "I'm With You," 2003.

Sidelights

The rebellious Avril Lavigne has led the way for teenybopper mall shoppers to find a new path to music that is different from the sex-oriented pop released by such performers as Britney Spears, Jennifer Lopez, Christina Aguilera and other singers popular with the MTV crowd.

Lavigne was born in Belleville, Ontario, Canada, and raised in Napanee, a town with a population of roughly 5,000 people located 100 miles southwest of Ottawa. It was a strong Christian home with a stay-at-home mother, Judy, and a father, John, who worked for Bell Canada. Avril was the second of three children, including older brother, Matt, and younger sister, Michelle. As a youngster, Lavigne loved to follow her older brother around. "If he played hockey, I had to play hockey. He played baseball, I wanted to," she told Entertainment Weekly. The family enjoyed camping and canoeing trips, dirt-biking and four-wheeling. They attended church at Evangel Temple, and when she was ten years old, Lavigne sang a solo in the Christmas pageant. "They really had no choice," her father told Maclean's, "she hogged the mike anyway. She had such a big voice."

Lavigne began taking her talent beyond the church, singing at local fairs and festivals, and even a Canadian Tire celebration. She was discovered singing in a bookstore when she was 14 by her first manager, Cliff Fabri. Fabri recalled to Entertainment Weekly, "When I first saw her, I liked her voice, and obviously the looks. But it was the attitude. She goes hunting all the time with her brother and dad.

Here's this sweet little thing, and I said to her one time, 'What about when a little doe comes out and starts nudging up to the mother? What do you do?' And she goes"—Fabri makes the sound of a shotgun blast—"'Dinner.'"

In 1999 Lavigne won a contest to sing with Shania Twain at the Corel Centre in Ottawa. "As soon as I walked out in front of 20,000 people, I'd never smiled so much in my life—it was like permasmile," she told Entertainment Weekly. "And I thought, 'This is what I'm going to do with my life, walk out on stage, have my own band, and be doing my own concert with my own songs.' I'm serious—this was meant to happen to me."

This event helped Lavigne move beyond local performances. Soon the chief executive officer of Arista Records, Antonio "L.A." Reid, noticed her. He signed her to a $1.25 million contract when she was 16. Lavigne, seeing a bright career before her, proceeded to drop out of high school. Arista provided her with country music to record, but after six months of working with co-writers it became clear that Lavigne was more interested in rock music. Arista sent her to Los Angeles, California, to work with some writing teams, including The Matrix. Lavigne poured all her teenage feelings into her lyrics and quickly worked to write "Complicated." Shortly thereafter, Lavigne transferred management allegiances from Fabri to the powerful Canadian management group Nettwerk. Nettwerk provided Lavigne with a touring band consisting of young musicians including guitarist Jesse Colburn, drummer Matt Brann, bassist Charles Moniz, and lead guitarist Evan Taubenfeld. Shauna Gold, Lavigne's manager, told Maclean's, "She's young, her music's young, we needed a band that would fit well with who she is as a person."

Lavigne's debut album, Let Go, was released in June of 2002, and within six months it had sold more than eight million copies worldwide. "Complicated" and "Sk8er Boi" topped the charts at number one. Lavigne and her band were off to tour through Europe, Asia, Australia, and North America. It was the third biggest-selling album of 2003, and garnered the MTV Video Music Award for Best New Artist.

With her tomboy looks and tough attitude, Lavigne's skategirl pop music gained in popularity with parents as well as teens. Her signature necktie look suddenly sprouted on girls around the world. When Lavigne changed from the necktie to camouflage, her fans followed suit. She was often called the "anti-Britney," referring to Britney Spears' revealing outfits and suggestive music and videos. Lavigne was uncomfortable with the comparison. "I don't like that term—'the anti-Britney.' It's stupid," Lavigne told Entertainment Weekly. "I don't believe in that. She's a human being . Leave her alone."

Lavigne earned even greater recognition during 2003. In April of that year she received several Juno Awards, winning Single of the Year for "Complicated," Album of the Year for Let Go, and New Artist of the Year. In May, Paramount Pictures optioned the song "Sk8er Boi," planning to adapt the words into a feature film. In June, the ABC Family cable network aired the television special Avril Lavigne: Anything But Ordinary. And in November of 2003, the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN) Awards honored Lavigne for "Complicated," as well as for "Sk8er Boi" and "I'm with You." In addition, the song "I'm with You" was showcased in the feature film Bruce Almighty starring Jim Carrey.

Lavigne began work on her second album, this time choosing to bypass the writing machine teams and to work on the lyrics and melodies herself. Her second album reflected Lavigne's own growth. "It's a more serious album in [some] ways," she told Newsweek. The album included a song, "Slipped Away," about the death of her grandfather. She worked with Canadian singer and songwriter Chantal Kreviazuk to write some of the new music. "She's one of my best friends," Lavigne told Billboard. "We understand the same stuff, and writing with another girl is easier." In addition, Lavigne co-wrote the song "Don't Tell Me" with Taubenfeld, her guitar player. It was her self-proclaimed "girl-power" song about resisting pressure to have sex. She wrote another song with Ben Moody, who had previously played guitar for the band Evanescence. Lavigne did not allow anyone at Arista to hear any of her music until after it was recorded. "There was no way I was gonna write songs and send them to people to re-write them like I did last time," she told Newsweek. "I need to feel I'm doing this on my own." Under My Skin was released in the spring of 2004.

In order to promote her new release, Lavigne performed a series of concerts at large malls across the country, starting with the Mall of America in Minneapolis, Minnesota. "We thought it would be cool to put on a free show and give back to fans," Lavigne told Billboard. "It was more than I expected. The crowds ranged from a few thousand to 10,000. Some of [the events] were moved outside. It's been great."

Late in 2004, Lavigne gained an even younger audience when she sang the "SpongeBob SquarePants theme" for the film based on the hit Nickelodeon cartoon. According to Heather Phares of All Music Guide, the album was "both a witty soundtrack and a hip children's album with wide-ranging appeal."

Selected discography

Let Go, Arista, 2002.

Under My Skin, Arista, 2004.

(Contributor) The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie: Music from the movie and more (soundtrack) Sire, 2004.

Sources

Periodicals

Billboard, May 22, 2004, p. 1.

Entertainment Weekly, November 1, 2002, p. 22.

Maclean's, January 13, 2003, p. 22.

Newsweek, December 30, 2002; March 22, 2004, p. 58.

People, April 5, 2004; May 31, 2004.

Online

Avril Lavigne Official Website, http://www.avrillavigne.com (December 7, 2004).

The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie: Music from the movie and more, All Music Guide,http://www.allmusic.com (December 7, 2004).

—Carol Brennan

Avril Lavigne

Singer, songwriter

The rebellious Avril Lavigne has led the way for teenybopper mall shoppers to find a new path to music that is different from the sex-oriented pop released by such performers as Britney Spears, Jennifer Lopez, Christina Aguilera and other singers popular with the MTV crowd.

Lavigne was born in Belleville, Ontario, and raised in Napanee, Ontario, Canada, a town with a population of roughly 5,000 people located 100 miles southwest of Ottawa. It was a strong Christian home with a stay-at-home mother, Judy, and a father, John, who worked for Bell Canada. Avril was the second of three children, including older brother Matt and younger sister Michelle. As a youngster, Lavigne loved to follow her older brother around. "If he played hockey, I had to play hockey. He played baseball, I wanted to," she told Entertainment Weekly. The family enjoyed camping and canoeing trips, dirt-biking and four-wheeling. They attended church at Evangel Temple, and when she was ten years old, Lavigne sang a solo in the Christmas pageant. "They really had no choice," her father told Maclean's, "she hogged the mike anyway. She had such a big voice."

Lavigne began taking her talent beyond the church, singing at local fairs and festivals, and even a Canadian Tire celebration. She was discovered singing in a bookstore when she was 14 by her first manager, Cliff Fabri. Fabri recalled to Entertainment Weekly, "When I first saw her, I liked her voice, and obviously the looks. But it was the attitude. She goes hunting all the time with her brother and dad. Here's this sweet little thing, and I said to her one time, 'What about when a little doe comes out and starts nudging up to the mother? What do you do?' And she goes—Fabri makes the sound of a shotgun blast—'Dinner.'"

In 1999 Lavigne won a contest to sing with Shania Twain at the Corel Centre in Ottawa. "As soon as I walked out in front of 20,000 people, I'd never smiled so much in my life—it was like perma-smile," She told Entertainment Weekly. "And I thought, This is what I'm going to do with my life, walk out on stage, have my own band, and be doing my own concert with my own songs. I'm serious—this was meant to happen to me."

This event helped Lavigne move beyond local performances. Soon the CEO of Arista Records, L.A. Reid, noticed her. He signed her to a $1.25 million contract when she was sixteen. Lavigne, seeing a bright career before her, proceeded to drop out of high school. Arista provided her with country music to record, but after six months of working with co-writers it became clear that Lavigne was more interested in rock music. Arista sent her to Los Angeles to work with some writing teams, including The Matrix. Lavigne poured all her teenage feelings into her lyrics and quickly worked to write "Complicated." Shortly thereafter, Lavigne transferred management allegiances from Fabri to the powerful Canadian management group Nettwerk. Nettwerk provided Lavigne with a touring band consisting of young musicians including guitarist Jesse Colburn, drummer Matt Brann, bassist Charles Moniz, and lead guitarist Evan Taubenfeld. Shauna Gold, Lavigne's manager, told Maclean's, "She's young, her music's young, we needed a band that would fit well with who she is as a person."

Lavigne's debut album, Let Go, was released in June of 2002, and within six months it had sold more than eight million copies worldwide. "Complicated" and "Sk8er Boi" topped the charts at number one. Lavigne and her band were off to tour through Europe, Asia, Australia, and North America. It was the third biggest-selling album of 2003, and garnered the MTV Video Music Award for Best New Artist.

With her tomboy looks and tough attitude, Lavigne's skategirl pop music gained in popularity with parents as well as teens. Her signature necktie look suddenly sprouted on girls around the world. When Lavigne changed from the necktie to camouflage, her fans followed suit. She was often called the "anti-Britney," referring to Britney Spears's skin-showing, suggestive music and videos. Lavigne was uncomfortable with the comparison. "I don't like that term—'the anti-Britney.' It's stupid," Lavigne told Entertainment Weekly. "I don't believe in that. She's a human being…. Leave her alone."

Lavigne earned even greater recognition during 2003. In April she received several Juno Awards, winning Single of the Year for "Complicated," Album of the Year for Let Go, and New Artist of the Year. In May Paramount Pictures optioned the song "Sk8er Boi," planning to adapt the words into a feature film. In June the ABC-Family cable network aired the television special Avril Lavigne: Anything But Ordinary. And in November the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN) Awards honored Lavigne for "Complicated," as well as for "Sk8er Boi" and "I'm with You." In addition, the song "I'm with You" was showcased in the feature film Bruce Almighty starring Jim Carrey.

Lavigne began work on her second album, this time choosing to bypass the writing machine teams and to work on the lyrics and melodies herself. Her second album reflected Lavigne's own growth. "It's a more serious album in ways," she told Newsweek. The album included a song, "Slipped Away," about the death of her grandfather. She worked with Canadian singer and songwriter Chantal Kreviazuk to write some of the new music. "She's one of my best friends," Lavigne told Billboard. "We understand the same stuff, and writing with another girl is easier." In addition, Lavigne co-wrote the song "Don't Tell Me" with her guitar player, Evan Taubenfeld. It was her self-proclaimed "girl-power" song about resisting pressure to have sex. She wrote another song with Ben Moody, who had previously played guitar for the band Evanescence. Lavigne did not allow anyone at Arista to hear any of her music until after it was recorded. "There was no way I was gonna write songs and send them to people to re-write them like I did last time," she told Newsweek. "I need to feel I'm doing this on my own." Under My Skin was released in the spring of 2004.

In order to promote her new release, Lavigne performed a series of concerts at large malls across the country, starting with the Mall of America in Minneapolis, Minnesota. "We thought it would be cool to put on a free show and give back to fans," Lavigne told Billboard. "It was more than I expected. The crowds ranged from a few thousand to 10,000. Some of [the events] were moved outside. It's been great."

For the Record …

Born Avril Ramona Lavigne on September 27, 1984, in Napanee, Ontario, Canada.

Won contest to perform with Shania Twain, 1999; signed with Arista Records, 2002; released Let Go, 2002; released Under My Skin, 2004.

Awards: MTV Music Video Award, Best New Artist, 2003; Juno Award, Single of the Year for "Complicated," 2003; Juno Award, Album of the Year for Let Go, 2003; Juno Award, New Artist of the Year, 2003; SOCAN Awards for "Complicated," "Sk8er Boi," and "I'm With You," 2003.

Addresses: Record company—Arista Records, 6 West 57th St., New York, NY 10019. Management—Nettwerk Management, 8730 Wilshire Blvd., Ste. 304, Beverly Hills, CA 90211. Website—Avril Lavigne Official Website: http://www.avril-lavigne.com.

Selected discography

Let Go, Arista, 2002.

Under My Skin, Arista, 2004.

Sources

Periodicals

Billboard, May 22, 2004, p. 1.

Entertainment Weekly, November 1, 2002, p. 22.

Maclean's, January 13, 2003, p. 22.

Newsweek, December 30, 2002; March 22, 2004, p. 58.

People, April 5, 2004; May 31, 2004.

Online

Avril Lavigne Official Website, http://www.avril-lavigne.com (July 28, 2004).

—Sarah Parkin

AVRIL LAVIGNE

Born: Napanee, Ontario, 27 September 1984

Genre: Rock, Pop

Best-selling album since 1990: Let Go (2002)

Hit songs since 1990: "Complicated," "Sk8ter Boi"

Tomboy pop superstar Avril Lavigne quickly made a name for herself in 2002 with her platinum debut album Let Go. Her rock-tinged sound and punk-influenced image helped distinguish her from many of the male and female teen pop acts of the previous years. Let Go features rock and hip-hop sounds mixed in with more standard pop production, but what sets Lavigne apart from many other teen pop acts is the songwriting credits she shares with professional songwriters on each track.

The middle child of a phone company employee and a homemaker, Lavigne spent her first sixteen years in Napanee, Ontario, a small town two hundred miles northeast of Toronto. She began singing country music publicly at an early age, including a performance with fellow Canadian Shania Twain. Her flexible and expressive alto voice betrays this early experience with country singing. Lavigne began writing her own songs at the age of twelve and soon set her sights on a record contract, signing a deal with New York–based Arista Records in 2000. With a highly publicized move from New York to Los Angeles prior to the completion of Let Go, Lavigne took an active role in her career development. In Los Angeles she met up with producer/songwriter Clif Magness, who sculpted the final sound of Let Go.

The first two singles from Let Go, "Complicated" and "Sk8ter Boi," represent the album's two stylistic poles: medium tempo ballads and more upbeat, pop-rock songs. On "Complicated," which begins characteristically with her solo voice accompanied by acoustic guitar, Lavigne's catchy chorus showcases the strengths of her husky voice. Throughout Let Go, her confident singing stands out as the most defining and engaging element of the musical texture. "Sk8ter Boi," with its simple, guitar-heavy texture, borrows from the bratty but highly accessible punk songs made popular by male bands like Blink-182. Lavigne adds a distinctively female point of view, but in the end she aspires merely to be the rock star's girlfriend rather than taking his side either on stage or on a skateboard. Most of her lyrics are rooted in teen experiences, including the autobiographical "My World."

After years in which the question of authenticity faded from the pop landscape with the popularity of acts like Britney Spears and *NSYNC, Lavigne has successfully placed herself as an alternative to alleged pop superficiality. As Lavigne stresses her guitar playing and songwriting abilities, detractors point to her roots in country and the use of professional songsmiths. They criticize her for jumping on the punk bandwagon in order to sell more records. Her supporters point out that Lavigne has situated herself outside the mainstream—and by implication pop conformity—in interviews and songs like "Anything but Ordinary." Because of this, many of Lavigne's teenage fans find that her music speaks to them more directly than that of the pop princesses who preceded her.

SELECTIVE DISCOGRAPHY:

Let Go (Arista, 2002).

WEBSITE:

www.avril-lavigne.com.

caroline polk o'meara