Avril Lavigne

Avril Lavigne was born in Belleville, Ontario, Canada, to French-Canadian and Baptist parents John and Judy Lavigne. From the age of five Lavigne grew up in the town of Napanee. There she sang in the church choir, learned to play the guitar, and sang in the country style.

Cliff Fabry, Avril's first professional manager, met her when she was singing country-style cover songs at Chapters Bookstore in Kingston, Ontario. During a performance at the Lennox Community Theatre, Avril was spotted by Steve Mead, a local country singer and songwriter, who invited her to sing on "Touch The Sky" for his 1999 album, Quinte Spirit. Impressed by her talent, he invited her to sing again on "Temple Of Life" and "Two Rivers" for his next album, 2000's "My Window To You."

At sixteen, Avril was spotted by Ken Krongard of Arista Records, who advised his boss, Antonio Reid, to listen to her in a studio in New York.

Apparently, Avril's first attempts at writing songs for Avril were not to her liking, and she eventually went to Los Angeles and began recording her first album with Cliff Magness and The Matrix Company, whose previous work included songs for Sheena Easton and Christina Aguilera.

The resulting album was Let Go. Avril has expressed a desire to write more pop-oriented songs in the future. "Let Go" was released on June 4, 2002, and in a short time reached #2 in the US, #1 in Australia, Canada, and the UK. The album reached platinum status 4 times in less than six months. By December 2004, it had sold 15 million copies worldwide.

Avril Lavigne won Best Discovery at the 2002 MTV Video Music Awards, won 4 of 6 Juno Awards nominations in 2003, earned World's Best-Selling Canadian Singer at the World Music Award, and was finally nominated for eight Grammy Awards.

Avril's second album, Under My Skin, was released on May 25, 2004. This album was just as good as the first and topped the charts in several countries, including the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, and Australia. Avril wrote most of the songs on this album herself.

Avril won two World Music Awards nominations in 2004 - World's Best Pop/Rock Artist and World's Best Selling Canadian Artist. She received five Juno Award nominations in 2005, earning three of them as Fan Choice Award, Artist of the Year and Pop Album of the Year.

The Forest Brothers cartoon was Avril's debut in cartoon voice acting, where she worked with William Shatner, Bruce Willis and Gary Shandling. She also took part in the making of Richard Gere's movie "The Shepherd," and her third project is called "Fast Food Nation," based on her favorite book. There she plays a supporting role.

In January 2006, Avril signed a contract with the modeling agency Ford Models. In February she appeared in the February edition of Harpers Bazaar. She also performed for eight minutes at the closing ceremony of the 2006 Winter Olympics (Turin, Italy).

In April 2007, Avril released her third album, The Best Damn Thing. The debut single "Girlfriend" managed to top the Billboard Hot 100 for the first time in her career. Then, in the summer of 2007, she released the single "When You're Gone." The third single was "Hot." A little later, a fourth, "The Best Damn Thing," was released, the same title as the album.

Discography:

Let Go (2002).
Under My Skin (2004)
The Best Damn Thing (2007)