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Birth Name: Avril Ramona Lavigne

Born: 27^th September 1984 Belleville, Ontario, Canada

Early Life

Avril Lavigne was born in Belleville, Ontario, 1984 to French-Canadian parents Judy and John Lavigne. At the age of 2, Lavigne began singing church songs with her mother who is a devout Baptist. The family moved to Napanee, Ontario, when Lavigne was five years old and she began playing guitar and writing songs in her early teens. Avril spent the next few years performing, mainly gospel and country music songs, at local fairs and talent shows.

In 1998, Lavigne won a local radio-station contest to sing alongside fellow Canadian Shania Twain on her first major concert tour. She appeared with Twain at her concert in Ottawa, appearing on stage to sing "What Made You Say That." During a performance with the Lennox Community Theatre, Lavigne was spotted by local folk singer Steve Medd, who invited her to sing on his song, "Touch the Sky," for his 1999 album, Quinte Spirit.

Musical Career

At the age of 16, she was spotted by Ken Krongard, A&R representative of Arista Records, who arranged a audition in New York City. Lavigne was signed to Arista in 2001.She dropped out of high school after the 11th grade and moved to Manhattan and began work on her debut album. She later re-located to Los Angeles to finish work on the album, enlisting the help of producer Cliff Magness and The Matrix production team.

In June 2002 Lavigne released her debut album "Let Go". The album went to # 1 in Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom and peaked at # 2 in the United States. As of May 2008, "Let Go" has sold over 18 million copies worldwide and has been certified platinum six times in the United States, five times in United Kingdom, seven times in Australia, four times in New Zealand, and once in Japan. Four singles from the album, "Complicated", "Sk8er Boi", "I'm With You" and "Losing Grip" charted in the top ten in the US, UK, Canada and Australian.

Lavigne was named "Best New Artist" at the 2002 MTV Video Music Awards, won four Juno Awards in 2003, was nominated for eight Grammy Awards, including "Song of the Year" for the single "Complicated" and "Best New Artist". In January 2003 Lavigne also started a 57 date world tour dubbed the "Try to Shut Me Up Tour".

In March 2004 Lavigne went on a "Live and by Surprise" twenty-one city mall-tour in the U.S. and Canada, to promote her second album, "Under My Skin", which was released in May. In its first week of release, it reached number one on the US Billboard 200 (selling 381,000 copies in its first week), Australian ARIA Albums Chart and UK Albums Chart. In September Lavigne set off on her second world tour, the "Bonez Tour", which would see her play over 100 dates over the following 12 months. The album went on to sell over 12 million copies worldwide.

On July 15^th, 2006 Lavigne married Sum 41 lead singer Deryck Whibley in an private ceremony in Montecito, California. She wore a Vera Wang gown and carried a bouquet of white roses. Their first dance was to "Iris" by The Goo Goo Dolls.

Lavigne's third album, "The Best Damn Thing", was released on April 17, 2007. The album debuted at number one in over twenty countries including on the U.S. Billboard 200 selling about 289,000 copies in its first week. The first single from the album was "Girlfriend", which became Lavigne's first single to reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100. "The Best Damn Thing" went onto become Sony BMG's biggest selling album of 2007 and sell over 5.5 million worldwide. In March 2008, Avril undertook a world tour named "The Best Damn Tour" to support the album. The tour took in 110 dates in the USA, Canada, UK & Ireland, Europe and Asia.

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