Avril Lavigne

Avril Ramona Lavigne-Whibley(born September27, 1984) is a Juno Award-winning, Grammy-
nominated Canadian pop/rock singer,songwriter, model, and occasional actress. She
was originally known for her "skater" persona,but has since shed that image in favour of a more sophisticated and feminine style since about 2005, although she has stated she is still a "rock chick" at heart. And she has also stated that the stage was for the camera, it was only for the photo shoots."I'm not punk", she claimed about her music genre as well. Her first two albums, Let Go (2002) and Under My Skin (2004), have topped charts in several countries. Her third album The Best Damn Thing(2007) is to be released in April 2007.Although her surname is of French origin, her name is usually pronounced in an anglicised way, somewhat as ("La-veen"),rather than.Lavigne, or rather la vigne, which in French means the vine or the vineyard. Her first name, Avril, is French for April,but is also pronounced in an anglicised way as("Av-ril"), rather than ("A-vreel").Lavigne is featured in Maxim magazine's Girls of Maxim gallery.In 2006, she was included in Canadian Business Magazine's ranking of the most powerful Canadians in Hollywood,grabbing the seventh position. She has sold over 25 million albums worldwide.



Biography:

Avril Ramona Lavigne was born in Belleville,Ontario to a French-born father,John,
and a Franco-Ontarian mother, Judy. Both parents are Catholic. Avril's musical talent was first spotted at the age of two when her mother says Avril began singing along with her on church songs. At age five she moved with her family to Napanee, Ontario, where she sang in a church choir and taught herself to play the guitar.In 1998, Lavigne won a competition to sing with fellow Canadian singer Shania Twain on her first major concert tour. She appeared alongside Twain at her concert in Ottawa,
appearing on stage to sing.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 folk singer Steve Medd (a relation of the influential Canadian journalist, Ben 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 follow up album, My Window To You, in 2000.




At the age of sixteen she was signed by Ken Krongard, the artists-and-repertoire A&R
representative of Arista Records, who invited the head of Arista, Antonio "L.A." Reid, to hear her sing in a New York City studio.She then completed work on her first album. Avril is extremely close to her younger sister Michelle Lavigne and her older brother Matthew Lavigne. Michelle is two years younger than Avril while Matt (Matthew) is three years older than Avril. On July 15, 2006, Avril married Deryck Whibley, the lead singer of Canadian punk band Sum 41.