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Avril Lavigne BIO
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Wild child Avril
Lavigne hit big in summer 2002 with her
spiky-fun debut song, "Complicated,"
shifting pop music into a different
direction. Lavigne, who was 17 at the time,
didn't seem concerned with the glamour of
the TRL-dominated pop world and such
confidence allowed her star power to soar.
The middle of three children in small-town
Napanee, Ontario, Lavigne's rock ambitions
were noticeable around age two.
By her early teens, she was already writing
songs and playing guitar. The church choir,
local festivals, and county fairs also
allowed Lavigne to get her voice heard, and
luckily, Arista Records main man Antonio
"L.A." Reid was listening. He offered her a
deal, and at 16, Lavigne's musical dreams
became reality.
With Reid's assistance and a new Manhattan
apartment, Lavigne found herself surrounded
by prime songwriters and producers, but it
wasn't impressive enough for her to
continue.
She had always relied on her own ideas to
create a musical spark, and things weren't
going as planned. Lavigne wasn't
disillusioned, though.
She headed for Los Angeles and Nettwerk
grabbed her. Producer/songwriter Clif
Magness (Celine Dion, Wilson Phillips,
Sheena Easton) tweaked Lavigne's melodic,
edgy sound and her debut, Let Go, was the
polished product.
Singles such as "Complicated" and "Sk8er Boi"
hit the Top Ten while "I'm with You" and
"Losing Grip" did moderately well at radio.
Butch Walker of the Marvelous 3, Our Lady
Peace frontman Raine Maida, and Don Gilmore
(Linkin Park, Good Charlotte) signed on to
produce Lavigne's second album, Under My
Skin, which appeared in May 2004. The album
topped the Billboard charts and produced the
number one hit "My Happy Ending." Other
singles like "Nobody's Home" and "Fall to
Pieces" did respectably well also.
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