Return of Nostalgia: Punk Queen

The Punk Queen, Avril Lavigne has grace us with new music that will bring out your old punk self way back in 2007 with the heavy eyeliner and knock off Converse. Back when you’d be jamming with your best friends yelling very word to “Sk8er boi” like you’re rockin’ on MTV.

Bite Me” is Avril’s newest single since she released her last album “Head Under Water” back in 2019. This new song brings back the angsty vibe from her album “The Best Damn Thing”

For those just now gracing your ears with Avril here is a little run down of her musical history!

Avril Lavigne grew up in Napanee, Ontario where the population was that of around 5,000 people. There she was more known to sing Gospel and Country music. She was also known to be a bit of a troublemaker through school.

Avril would often preform at country fairs playing songs by Garth Brooks, The Chicks, and Shania Twain.

From Country to Punk, what a musical turn huh?

In 1999 Avril won a Radio competition to preform with another Female Canadian icon Shania Twain in Ottawa at the Corel Centre in front of an audience of twenty-thousand people. From there she would go on to preform at the Lennox Community theatre and be noticed by Folksinger Stephen Medd. Medd went on to ask her to contribute vocals on his song “Touch the Sky” and later on two more of his songs in 2000.

The end on 1999 Avril met her First Professional Manager Cliff Fabri while singing country covers at a Chapters bookstore in Kingston Ontario. Fabri would go on and send VHS taps of her preforming karaoke in her basement to numerous music producers and executives. These tapes would lead her to working in New York with producer Peter Zizzo. That summer of 2000 she would write along side Zizzo the song “Why“.

While in New York her parents would decide leaving school behind for a promising music career would be the best course of action. So, with the support of her parents in November 2000 Avril Lavigne would sign a two-album contract of $1.25 Million with an extra $900,000 from publishing with Arista Records.

During the writing of her song “Why” and new record deal Avril would find her sound and start her career working with members on the band the “Closet Monsters” on her journey into the Canadian Punk Rock Scene.

Between the years of 2001-2003 Avril would go on to work between New York and California to work on a define her sound that rocked the 2000’s punk rock music scene. Avril would go on to release her first album “Let Go” in January of 2002 that included her debut single “Complicated“.

Avril’s single “Complicated” was one of the biggest hits of the decade in the United States. The song would peak at #1 in Australia and #2 in the United States becoming one of the bestselling Canadian singles of 2002.

At the age of seventeen Avril would become the youngest female soloist to have a number 1 album in the UK album charts. In 2003 “Let Go” would become four-times Platinum by the RIAA making her the best-selling female artist of 2002.

Fun fact, as of March 2018 “Let Go” has been certified as a seven-times Platinum Album.

Along side with her debut single she also released “Sk8er boi” and “I’m With You” that reached top on Billboard’s Mainstream Top 40. These charting singles Avril Lavigne became the second artist to have 3 top-ten from a debut album.

Avril went on to win four Juno awards and receiving a Worlds Music Reward for “World’s Bestselling Canadian Singer”. She would also have eight Grammy Award nominations.

From 2004 to present day Avril would go on to release five more studio albums.

2004 she would go on to release “Under My Skin” that would debut at #1 in Canada, United States, Japan, UK, and Australia. This album would go on to win Avril the awards “World’s best Pop/Rock Artist” and for the second time “World’s Bestselling Canadian Artist”.

She’d later release the album “Best Damn Thing” in 2007 that debuted #1 on the US Billboard 200. In 2011 she released “Goodbye Lullaby”

Goodbye Lullaby” was delayed by her label. The album was more pop and toned the pop rock that is very relevant in her pervious albums. This album did came out almost 2 years after her divorce from lead vocalist of Sum 41’s Deryck Whibley.

In 2013 she released her self titled 5th studio album which she worked on with her then husband Chad Kroeger. This Album had a sing called “Hello Kitty” that raised controversies of racism over it’s music video to which Avril did deny.

between her self titled album and her news on “Head Above Water” released in 2019 Avril would face many problems. The singer we bed ridden from Lyme Disease for almost 2 years all while preceding with a divorce of Chad Kroeger. The songs on this latest album were largely inspired by her battle with Lyme disease and her mental struggle.

Avril Lavigne has had quite a note worthy career with all her awards and breaking through to the US music scene. She even has her own conspiracy theory where people believe that the Avril we know and love today isn’t actually her. It’s a woman by the name of Melissa originally hired as a body double to replace Avril for red carpet events! (Crazy right?!). It also goes on that Chad her ex-husband trained her to sing like Avril and people link this assumption to how “Goodbye Lullaby” was delayed and sounded different then her last albums. Now hearing her newest single “Bite Me” It’s safe to say this conspiracy has been debunked.

After all these years she is still a Punk Rock icon. With the release of her new song and an album on the way Avril just announce she is going on a Canadian Tour in the spring of 2022!

 

 

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