Avril Lavigne

Avril Lavigne on Animax Music Station

Avril Lavigne on Animax Music Station

Name: Avril Ramona Lavigne
Birth date: September 27, 1984
Birth place: Belleville, Ontario, Canada
Height: 5′ 2″
Family: Parents, a brother and a sister
Husband: Deryck Whibley
Profession: Singer and song writer

Avril Lavigne Whibley, better known by her birth name of Avril Lavigne, (born September 27, 1984) is a Canadian rock/punk-pop singer, musician and actress. In 2006, Canadian Business Magazine ranked her the seventh most powerful Canadian in Hollywood, and in 2007 she won ninth place in the Jabra Music Contest for the Best Band in the World, based on fan votes from around the world.

Lavigne's birth surname is usually pronounced in an anglicized way as /ˈævrəl ləˈviːn/"La-Veen" (in French it is commonly pronounced /aˈvʁil laˈviːɲ/ (help·info)). Avril is French for "April", while la vigne means "the vine" or "the vineyard".

Lavigne's debut album, Let Go, was released in 2002, and went on to sell over 18 million copies worldwide. And was certified six times platinum in the United States. Her second and third albums, Under My Skin (2004) and The Best Damn Thing (2007), respectively, reached number one on the U.S. Billboard 200. Lavigne has scored five number one songs worldwide to date and a total of eleven top ten hits, including "Complicated", "Sk8er Boi", "I'm with You", "My Happy Ending", and "Girlfriend". She ranked # 50 on VH1's "50 Greatest Women Of The Video Era" show list.

Avril Lavigne was born in Belleville, Ontario to a devout Christian family. Lavigne's musical talent was first spotted at the age of two when her mother says Lavigne began singing along with her on church songs. The family moved to Napanee, Ontario, when Lavigne was five years old.

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 "What Made You Say That".

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, Lavigne 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 at the New York City studio of producer Peter Zizzo. She then completed work on her first album, Let Go. The Matrix, who worked extensively with Lavigne on the album, commented on her songwriting, saying, "We conceived the ideas on guitar and piano. Avril would come in and sing a few melodies, change a word here or there."