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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 Lavigne 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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