Avril Lavigne Biography

Avril Lavigne 

Early Life

Renown singer and songwriter Avril Lavigne was born Avril Ramona Lavigne in Napanee, Ontario, Canada, on September 27, 1984, to Judy and John Lavigne, whom both are French-Canadians. She is the mid child in the family, in which she has an older brother, Matthew and a younger sister, Michelle. During her childhood, Avril grew up singing country music and in a church choir and taught herself to play guitar since 12-years-old. She had also started to write her own songs, which was written every time she got home and mainly talks about what happened to her that day. Later she explored more of her skills by joining many talent shows and left her hometown when she was 16 years old. 

Career

Avril finally won a competition in a radio contest that allowed her to travel to Ontario and sing with Country legend Shania Twain. Over the next couple of years she tried to make the U.S. recording industry to take notice on her music, but it wasn't until she was in New York at age 16 that she was signed to Arista records. Things began to roll when an Arista employee was so impressed with her music that he returned with his CEO to hear her sang. Once signed to the major label, she immediately dropped out of high school after 11th grade and moved to New York to begin work on her debut album. Unfortunately, it didn't work the way she hoped. Her time in New York was short-lived as she failed to meet her approval, and eventually moved to Los Angeles, California. From there, Avril eventually moved to the west coast to work with producer/songwriter Cliff Magness, and with more secured input, the two of them worked on compositions for her debut record. The fruit of her partnership and hard work with Cliff was apparent in early 2002 when her debut single ''Complicated'' was released in North America. 

In succession, Avril's first album "Let Go" was released by Arista on June 4, 2002, and immediately went to number one in Canada and soared high into the Billboard top 40 before eventually was certified "Quadruple Platinum" less than six months later by the Recording Industry Association of America. Along with her debut album success, Avril was named "Best New Artist" at the 2002 MTV Video Music Awards and at the 2003 Juno Awards. In the latter event, she led the nominations with six nods, winning four of them namely for: Single of the Year ("Complicated"); Album of the Year ("Let Go"); New Artist of the Year; and Pop Album of the Year. The debut album spawned more hit singles in various parts of the world, including "Complicated" which went to #1 on the US adult charts and in Australia while reaching #2 on the Billboard Hot 100; "Sk8er Boi" (Skater Boy) that went top 10 in the US and Australia and #1 in Canada; "I'm With You" which reached #1 on the US and world adult charts (based on the US, UK, Canada, Germany, France and Australia), and #4 on the Billboard Hot 100; and "Losing Grip" which reached #1 in Canada, #10 Taiwan, #20 Chile and top 50 on a composite European chart. 

Following the debut album's success and her fame, Avril was often compared to Alanis Morissette, Vanessa Carlton and Michelle Branch, who emerged at about the same time and were popularly credited. Apart from the critics, Avril herself tend to describe her first album as a pop album with "a couple of rock songs on it," and indicated a desire to write more rock-oriented songs in the future. Thus, she started working on her next album and wrote most of the lyrics in it with the help of Canadian singer-songwriter Chantal Kreviazuk. She also co-wrote one track, "Nobody's Home", with Ben Moody, formerly of Evanescence, and the rest with her former lead guitarist Evan Taubenfeld. In an attempt to make her second album "Under My Skin" another success, Avril worked together with three producers, notably Butch Walker of Marvelous 3; Raine Maida of Our Lady Peace who is also Kreviazuk's husband; and Don Gilmore, who has produced Good Charlotte and Linkin Park. And so "Under My Skin" was done and released on May 25, 2004. Approvingly, this album was a success, going to #1 around the world, notably in the UK, USA, Canada and Australia and on the Billboard Internet charts. 

Album

The first single of "Under My Skin" titled "Don't Tell Me," went to #1 in Argentina, top 5 in the UK and Canada, and top 10 in Australia, Brazil and a European composite chart in June, 2004. In succession to that, the album's second single "My Happy Ending" also reached #9 on the Billboard Hot 100. As a result of this album success, Avril favorably won.

source:aceshowbiz.com