Avril Lavigne

A portrait of Avril Lavigne.

Avril Lavigne punked up in school uniform.

Avril Ramona Lavigne Whibley (born September 27, 1984) is an eight-time Grammy Award nominated Canadian rock singer and musician. Avril Lavigne has sold over twenty-seven million albums worldwide. In 2006, Canadian Business Magazine ranked Avril Lavigne the seventh most powerful Canadian in Hollywood, and in 2007 Avril Lavigne won ninth place in the Jabra Music Contest for the Best Band in the World, based on fan votes from around the world.

Avril 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 16 million copies worldwide and was certified six times platinum in the United States. Avril Lavigne's second and third albums, Under My Skin (2004) and The Best Damn Thing (2007), respectively, reached number one on the U.S. Billboard 200. Avril 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".