Born in the small town of Napanee Ontario (5000 residents) in 1985 Avril Lavigne stood
out from the crowd at an early age. First honing her musical talents in the church choir,
she graduated onto country music competitions and eventually to an amount of stardom when
she won a competition in a radio contest that allowed her to travel to Ontario and sing
with Country legend Shania Twain!
Despite this early success, Avril continued her Napanee school career and at the same time
developed her other musical talents (particularly the guitar). Over the next couple of years
she tried to make the US recording industry sit up and take notice, but it wasn't until she was
in New York at age 16 that she was finally signed to Arista records when an Arista employee was so
impressed that he insisted that he return with his CEO to hear Avril sing.
Once signed to the major label, Avril moved south to New York where she finally began her
professional career in earnest. Her time in NY was relatively short-lived as she next moved to
the west coast to work with producer/songrter Cliff Magness - with his input secured, the pair
worked on compositions for her debut record with Avril playing a key role in the songwriting process.
The fruit of her partnership with Magness first became apparent in early 2002 when her debut single
"Complicated" was released in North America and immediately went to number one in Canada and high into
the Billboard top 40. Following on from this initial success, Avril's debut CD "Let Go" was also
released in summer 2002 and entered the Billboard chart at number 8!
Avril's appeal has been both, in part, as a singer who is not ready to conform to the mainstream of
the pop music industry. She has distanced herself from some comparisons, and has made less than
flattering remarks about some of her more mainstream contemporaries.
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Alyssa Milano
