Avril Lavigne

Avril Ramona Lavigne Whibley (born September 27, 1984) is a Canadian Rock singer and musician. She has sold over twenty-six million albums worldwide. In 2006, Canadian Business Magazine ranked her the seventh most powerful Canadian in Hollywood.

Lavigne's birth surname is usually pronounced in an anglicized way as /ˈævrəl ləˈviːn/"La-Veen" (in French it is commonly pronounced /aˈvʁil laˈviːɲ/ (help·info)). Avril is French for "April", while la vigne means "the vine" or "the vineyard".

Lavigne's debut album, Let Go, was released in 2002. Her second and third albums, Under My Skin (2004) and The Best Damn Thing (2007), respectively, reached number one on the U.S. Billboard 200. Lavigne has scored five number one songs worldwide to date and a total of eleven top ten hits, including "Complicated", "Sk8er Boi", "I'm with You", "My Happy Ending", "Nobody's Home", "Keep Holding On", and "Girlfriend".

On July 21, 2007, Avril Lavigne won the ninth place in Jabra Music Contest as Best Band in the World. The contest was based in votings from all over the world.

Background

Avril Lavigne was born in Belleville, Ontario to a devout Christian family. Lavigne's musical talent was first spotted at the age of two when her mother says Lavigne began singing along with her on church songs. The family moved to Napanee, Ontario, when Lavigne was five years old.

In 1998, Lavigne won a competition to sing with fellow Canadian singer Shania Twain on her first major concert tour. She appeared alongside Twain at her concert in Ottawa, appearing on stage to sing "What Made You Say That".

She was discovered by her first professional manager, Cliff Fabri, while singing country covers at a Chapters bookstore in Kingston, Ontario. During a performance with the Lennox Community Theatre, Lavigne was spotted by local folk singer Steve Medd (a relation of the influential Canadian journalist, Ben Medd), who invited her to sing on his song "Touch the Sky" for his 1999 album Quinte Spirit. She also sang on "Temple of Life" and "Two Rivers" for his follow up album, My Window to You, in 2000.

At the age of sixteen she was signed by Ken Krongard, the artists-and-repertoire (A&R) representative of Arista Records, who invited the head of Arista, Antonio "L.A." Reid, to hear her sing at the New York City studio of producer Peter Zizzo. She then completed work on her first album, Let Go. The Matrix, who worked extensively with Lavigne on the album, commented on her songwriting, saying, "We conceived the ideas on guitar and piano. Avril would come in and sing a few melodies, change a word here or there."

Personal life

It has been revealed that Lavigne is a vegetarian. In the January 2003 issue of Seventeen magazine, she admitted to "snagging a bite of Matt's cheeseburgers every now and again." Also in a recent interview, she said she prefers not to eat meat, but will not say she's a vegetarian "in case anyone caught her eating meat".

As a teenager she would hang out at the La Pizzeria restaurant in Napanee, Ontario. In her Under My Skin Bonez Documentary, she has stated that pizza with olive toppings is her favorite food, although she doesn't eat it too much because pizza is detrimental to her voice. Since her rise to fame, the restaurant has named a pizza after Lavigne that contains her favorite toppings and there is a guest book for fans to sign that Lavigne picks up when she visits friends and family in her home town.

Lavigne has a star tattooed on the inside of her left wrist that matches the style of the one used for her first album artwork. It was created at the same time as friend and musical associate Ben Moody's identical tattoo. In late 2004, she had a small pink heart-shaped tattoo featuring the letter 'D' applied to her right wrist — thought to be a reference to husband Deryck Whibley, with whom she has bought a house in Bel-Air, previously owned by another famous couple: Travis Barker and Shanna Moakler for $9.5 Million. The house has 8 bedrooms, 10.5 bathrooms, an office, elevator, a high-tech kitchen and a 10-car garage.

Lavigne was romantically linked to her former guitarist Jesse Colburn, but despite rumors, she did not have a relationship with another former guitarist, Evan Taubenfeld. However, Taubenfeld still considers Lavigne his "dearest friend in the whole world" as said on a recent Q&A on his band's official website. In a J-14 magazine from 2004, she talks about her first kiss being when she was fourteen years old.

In February 2004, she began dating fellow Canadian singer Deryck Whibley, the lead singer/guitarist of pop punk band Sum 41. On June 27, 2005, Lavigne and Whibley became engaged. Whibley proposed to Lavigne by surprising her with a trip to Venice, a gondola ride, and then a romantic picnic.

The couple married in a Catholic ceremony attended by about 110 guests on July 15, 2006 at a private estate in the California coastal city of Montecito. When asked if they were ready for kids the couple said "not right now but somewhere down the road." Also, Avril has recently become a member of the website 'Stardoll'. On the website, there are three 'Avril' dolls that you can dress up. All three relate to her image in each of her three CDs. The latest one comes equipped with hair and clothes of all three of her characters in her Girlfriend video.

(Wikipedia.org)