Avril Lavigne Biography

Avril Lavigne was born in 1984 in Belleville, Ontario. Even as a young child, Avril stood out from her female peers, with her active, sports-oriented life and her musical talents, which became apparent early on. She sang in the local choir and then later, as a young teen, she began singing in music competitions and local fairs. By the age of thirteen, she’d earned a grand prize in a competition that brought her to Ottawa to perform with Shania Twain.

Avril Lavigne began sending demos of her performances to agencies while still in high school. Eventually, Nettwerk Management expressed enough interest to fund her trip to New York City to start work on her demo. Before the demo was even completed, Arista had signed Lavigne to a contract, and plans for a debut were put in motion. But Avril was unable to find a fellow songwriter with whom she felt comfortable, and so she moved to Los Angeles to test the waters there. She found what she was looking for in Cliff Magness, a songwriter/producer, and within only a few months, Lavigne’s demo was nearly complete.

“Complicated” was released in 2002 and shot up the charts quickly, in both Canada and the US.  Let Go was released in the same year, and bolstered in part by the success of “Complicated,” found a home at number eight on the charts. The result of Avril Lavigne’s debut was four Juno Awards and eight Grammy nominations. Additional albums and hit singles followed: Under My Skin (2004), The Best Damn Thing (2007), “My Happy Ending,” “Hot,” “Don’t Tell Me,” “Nobody’s Home,” “He Wasn’t,” “When You’re Gone,” and “Girlfriend,” which became Avril Lavigne’s first single to reach the number one position. “Girlfriend” also went on to become the most downloaded single of 2007, worldwide, and ranked on the Hot 100 Singles of the Decade list.

Since that time, Avril Lavigne has released the additional albums Goodbye Lullaby (2011) and Avril Lavigne (2013.) The latter featured the charting singles “Here’s to Never Growing Up,” “Rock n Roll,” “Let Me Go,” and “Hello Kitty.” She also launched her own clothing line, Abbey Dawn, in 2008, and her own fragrance line.

At this point in her career, Avril Lavigne is one of the best-selling artists worldwide, with more than thirty million copies in album sales. She most recently  released the singles “Give You What You Like” and “Fly,” in advance of her upcoming album, scheduled for release sometime in 2017.