June 12, 2017 | Josh Mendelssohn

26 Complicated Facts about Avril Lavigne.


“Why should I care what other people think of me? I am who I am. And who I wanna be.” – Avril Lavigne

Canadian singer-songwriter and actress, Avril Lavigne took the music world by storm after signing her first record contract at the age of 16.

Here are a few things you might not know about The Pop Punk Princess herself: Avril Lavigne.


27. Skater Style

Avril has a best-selling fashion and lifestyle brand called Abbey Dawn, named after Lavigne’s childhood nickname. She is not just the name behind the brand, but also the designer, utilizing skulls, zebras, and hot pinks and blacks.

Facts about Avril Lavigne

26. Small Town Girl

Avril is from a town called Napanee, Ontario, which is so small that the local pizza joint has named a pizza after her. For the record, it contains pepperoni, olives, and mushrooms. No pineapple. Because she’s not a monster.

Facts about Avril Lavigne

25. Name of the Month

She was named “Avril” by her father after the French word for the month of April. Good thing she wasn’t born in October.

Facts about Avril Lavigne

24. One Woman Band

A self-taught musician, Avril can play the guitar, piano, and drums.

Facts about Avril Lavigne

23. Smells Like Teen Spirit

Avril’s favorite band is Nirvana, which is a bit surprising considering she’s young enough to have been the baby on the album cover for Nevermind.

Nirvana Nevermind

22. Called It

At the age of 15, Lavigne won a radio contest and was given the opportunity to appear on stage with Shania Twain, Canadian music royalty. Lavigne apparently told Shania that she was going to become “a famous singer.”

Facts about Avril Lavigne

21. Booked!

Lavigne was discovered by her first professional manager, Cliff Fabri, while singing country covers in a Chapters bookstore in Kingston, Ontario.

Facts about Avril Lavigne

20. School is for Suckers

After Antonio “L.A.” Reid, then head of Arista Records, heard Lavigne sing, he immediately signed her to deal worth $1.25 million with a $900,000 advance. At this point, Avril dropped out of school to focus on her music career.

Facts about Avril Lavigne

19. Enter The Matrix

Working with The Matrix production team, she created two songs (including “Complicated”) that resulted in a major breakthrough in terms of finding Lavigne an individual sound. “Complicated” ended up being her debut single.

Facts about Avril Lavigne

18. Pretty Girls

When she first arrived on the scene, she was described by many as the “Anti-Britney” due to her less commercial and “real” image. Avril argued against this, saying, “I'm not made up and I'm not being told what to say and how to act, so they have to call me the anti-Britney, which I'm not."

Facts about Avril Lavigne

17. With Glowing Hearts

Avril represented Canada at the closing ceremony of the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy. She performed her song “Who Knows.”

Facts about Avril Lavigne

16. Winter Wonder

She also performed at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, BC along with then-husband Chad Kroeger, Alanis Morissette, and Simple Plan.

Facts about Avril Lavigne

15. Isn’t That Special

Continuing her long lasting relationship with the Olympic games, she released a single, “Fly,” in association with the 2015 Special Olympics World Summer Games.

Facts about Avril Lavigne

14. None Shall Pass… Except Avril

Sir Ian McKellen once described Lavigne as “a punk chanteuse, a post-grunge valkyrie, with the wounded soul of a poet and the explosive pugnacity of a Canadian." Sir Ian McKellen may also be a poet...

Gandalf

13. The Sum of All Fears

In 2006, Avril married Deryck Whibley, lead singer and guitarist for the band Sum 41. Deryck secretly took Lavigne’s name.

Facts about Avril Lavigne

12. Gone but not Forgotten

The couple was divorced after four years (just in time for the next Olympics), but Whibley and Lavigne still enjoyed a working relationship, with Whibley producing her fourth album and the single “Alice” written for Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland.

Facts about Avril Lavigne

11. Comic Relief

In 2007, Avril was featured in a two-volume graphic novel titled “Make 5 Wishes” about a shy girl named Hana who, upon meeting her hero Avril Lavigne, learns to overcome her fears and address the stress of modern angsty teenage life through escapism.

Facts about Avril Lavigne

10. Avril Lavigne Featuring Chad Kroeger

After dating for one month, she married Chad Kroeger of Nickelback.

Facts about Avril Lavigne

9. Let Me Go

Three years later, Lavigne announced on Instagram that she and Kroeger were separating, presumably after David Grohl’s mean tweets made her reconsider the union.

Facts about Avril Lavigne

Poor Nickelback. They have some awesome songs!

8. A Splash of Lyme

In 2015, Lavigne revealed that she had Lyme Disease, which is transmitted via infected ticks.

Facts about Avril Lavigne

Adult deer tick. Now this article is educational.

7. Secondhand Hits

Avril has co-written songs for other artists, including the song “Breakaway” sung by Kelly Clarkson. “Breakaway” was originally intended for Lavigne’s debut studio album Let Go but was deemed better suited to Kelly.

Facts about Avril Lavigne

6. And the Oscar Goes to…

She’s appeared as actress in the films Over the Hedge (as a possum), Fast Food Nation (as a vegetarian activist), and The Flock (as the girlfriend of a serial abuser).

Facts about Avril Lavigne

5. No “Ragrets”

Inspired by her then-boyfriend Brody Jenner, Avril had the name “Brody” tattooed beneath her right breast. They broke up two years later. It’s okay. She can just tell people she’s a huge fan of Adrien Brody.

Facts about Avril Lavigne

4. She Got Game

These designs were featured in an online game called Stardoll, where you can dress Avril Lavigne and do her makeup. It’s a game targeted at young girls and creepy men.

Facts about Avril Lavigne

3. Scent of a Woman

Avril has two perfumes, Black Star and Forbidden Rose, in case any of you have ever wanted to smell like Avril Lavigne and attract Chad Kroeger.

Slider 1 Unedited

2. Avril vs. Zuckerberg

In a demonstration of his in-progress artificial intelligence system Jarvis, named after Tony Stark's AI from the Iron Man movies, Zuckerberg asked the program to "play us some good Nickelback songs."

"I'm sorry Mark, I'm afraid I can't do that," replied Jarvis. "There are no good Nickelback songs."

Avril fired back over Twitter, accusing him of bullying Nickelback.

Avril Tweet

1. Pretty in Ink

Avril is famous for having quite a few tattoos including ink of the F word on her ribs.

Facts about Avril Lavigne

Sources: 1 2 3 4


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