Read the biography of Avril Lavinge. How close were you to your predictions?*If you don’t know the meaning of the bold underlined words, hold on the words for a definition.
There are very few people who know what they want to do in life, who know what their dreams are by the time they’re teenagers. But, that’s certainly not the case with young Avril Lavigne. This small town girl from Napanee, Ontario knew exactly what her dream was and went after it.
Avril Lavigne was born on September 28, 1984. She is a middle child who “always wanted to be the centre of attention.” She says she started singing at the age of 2 and was well known for her singing talents in her hometown of Napanee (click here to view Napanee ).
Avril would often sing in front of her mirror, using her hairbrush as a microphone and pretend to be singing in front of a large crowd. Outside the home, she sang in the church choir until she was 10 years old. Then she began to sing in country music regional competitions. Also, she taught herself how to play the guitar when she was 12.
At the age of 13, Avril won a local radio contest . The prize was a trip to Ottawa to sing a duet with Shania Twain (click here to view the official Shania Twain website ). This may have seemed like a big break for Avril, but it was nothing compared to what was to come.
By now, she had started writing her own music and decided to send out videotapes of her performances to various recording companies. Arista Records decided to sign “the teenage wild child before she had even recorded a demo .” So at the age of 16, she dropped out of high school and went with her older brother to New York.
Things didn’t work out as Avril Lavigne had hoped they would in Manhattan. Antonio “L.A.” Reid, CEO of Arista Records was expecting Lavigne to be a mere vocalist. However, Lavigne had other plans. She wanted to be an “artist” involved in the songwriting process. She also wanted to be herself. She wasn’t interested in an image makeover .
Make up and high heels were never part of Avril’s personality and she certainly didn’t want them to become part of her image. “I’m gonna dress what’s me, I’m gonna act what’s me and I’m gonna sing what’s me.”
Finally, Arista allowed Avril to write her own songs and she moved to Los Angeles where “she hooked up with producer/songwriter Clif Magness” (click here to learn more about Clif Magness and how he helped Avril Lavigne). The two of them instantly connected and they began working on her very successful debut album.
Her album, Let Go, “debuted at number eight on the billboard charts in the summer of 2002 and went platinum within five weeks of its release.”
Avril’s personality and image has been described as high energy, self-assured “celebrating her tomboy skater-punk individuality and her love for rock music”.
This clearly comes across in her music. Her first single Complicated, along with several other songs on the album deal with the issue of honesty, being true to yourself and not acting like someone that you’re not.
Avril admits to being a tomboy. “I was always a tomboy and I guess I still am. I played hockey during the fall/winter and baseball in the summer. I loved playing with the boys.” Of course, anyone who has heard of Avril Lavigne knows that she played soccer and that her team sponsor was the Napanee Home Hardware.
Since, she appeared as guest host on Saturday Night Live (click here to learn more about Saturday Night Live) with the Napanee Home Hardware T-shirt, it became a very popular item and is being sold to raise funds for the soccer team. As for her music, she says, “I can’t wait to be out there; I want to rock the world! I want people to know that my music is real and honest –it came from my heart. I was being true to myself.”