Biographical Sketches of Avril Lavigne copied from the Internet
BIOGRAPHY # 1
Avril Ramona Lavigne (born September 27, 1984) is a Canadian pop rock singer-songwriter and occasional actress who is known for her "skater punk" persona. Her two albums, Let Go (2002) and Under My Skin (2004), topped the charts in numerous countries.
Although her surname is of French origin, she herself does not speak French and her name is pronounced in an anglicized way, somewhat as "La-veen". Her first name, Avril, is French for April, but is also pronounced in an anglicized, way as "Av-ril", rather than "avReel".
BIOGRAPHY # 2
Early life
Born in Belleville, Ontario, to Franco-Ontarian Christian parents John and Judy Lavigne, Avril, at age five, moved with her family to Napanee, Ontario, Canada, where she sang in a church choir and taught herself to play the guitar.
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, Avril was spotted by local folksinger Steve 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 followup album, My Window To You, in 2000.
At 16, she was signed by Ken Krongard, the artists-and-repertoire (A&R) representative of Arista Records, who invited his boss, Arista head Antonio "L.A." Reid, to hear her sing in an NYC studio. She then completed work on her first album.
2002–2003
Reportedly, early attempts to co-write songs for her failed to meet her approval, and Lavigne eventually moved to Los Angeles, California, and co-wrote her album with Cliff Magness and the songwriting team The Matrix, which has also worked with Sheena Easton and Christina Aguilera. She described her first album, Let Go, as a pop album with "a couple of rock songs on it", and has voiced a desire to write more rock-oriented songs in the future. It was released by Arista on June 4, 2002, in the United States, reaching No. 2 there and No. 1 in Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom (making Lavigne the youngest female soloist to have a number-one album in the UK until Joss Stone's 2004 album Mind, Body & Soul). It was certified four times platinum less than six months later by the RIAA, and had sold 14 million copies worldwide as of December 2004.
Biography # 3
Born in the small town of Napanee Ontario (5000 residents) in 1985 Avril Lavigne stood out from the crowd at an early age. First honing her musical talents in the church choir, she graduated onto country music competitions and eventually to an amount of stardom when she won a competition in a radio contest that allowed her to travel to Ontario and sing with Country legend Shania Twain!
Despite this early success, Avril continued her Napanee school career and at the same time developed her other musical talents (particularly the guitar). Over the next couple of years she tried to make the US recording industry sit up and take notice, but it wasn't until she was in New York at age 16 that she was finally signed to Arista records when an Arista employee was so impressed that he insisted that he return with his CEO to hear Avril sing.
Once signed to the major label, Avril moved south to New York where she finally began her professional career in earnest. Her time in NY was relatively short-lived as she next moved to the west coast to work with producer/songrter Cliff Magness - with his input secured, the pair worked on compositions for her debut record with Avril playing a key role in the songwriting process.
The fruit of her partnership with Magness first became apparent in early 2002 when her debut single "Complicated" was released in North America and immediately went to number one in Canada and high into the Billboard top 40. Following on from this initial success, Avril's debut CD "Let Go" was also released in summer 2002 and entered the Billboard chart at number 8!
Avril's appeal has been both, in part, as a singer who is not ready to conform to the mainstream of the pop music industry. She has distanced herself from some comparisons, and has made less than flattering remarks about some of her more mainstream contemporaries.
We love this complicated Canadian - we think you will to. Whatever the future holds for Avril, it certainly isn't going to be dull!
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