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Avril Ramona Lavigne was
born in
Belleville, Ontario to a
French-born father, John, and a Franco-Ontarian mother, Judy.
Both parents are Catholic. Avril's musical talent was first
spotted at the age of two when her mother says Avril began
singing along with her on church songs. At age five she moved
with her family to Napanee,
Ontario, where she sang in a church choir and taught herself to
play the guitar.
In
1998, Lavigne won a competition
to sing with fellow Canadian singer Shania Twain on her first
major concert tour. She appeared alongside Twain at her concert
in Ottawa, appearing on stage to sing.
She was
discovered by her first professional manager,
Cliff Fabri, while singing
country covers at a Chapters bookstore in Kingston, Ontario.
During a performance with the Lennox Community Theatre, Avril
was spotted by local folk singer Steve Medd (a relation of the
influential Canadian journalist, Ben Medd), who invited her to
sing on his song "Touch The Sky" for his 1999 album Quinte
Spirit. She also sang on "Temple Of Life" and "Two Rivers"
for his follow up album, My Window To You, in 2000.
At the
age of sixteen she was signed by Ken Krongard, the
artists-and-repertoire
A&R representative of
Arista Records, who invited the head of
Arista, Antonio "L.A." Reid, to hear her sing in a New York City
studio. She then completed work on
her first album. Avril is extremely close to her younger sister
Michelle Lavigne and her older brother Matthew Lavigne. Michelle
is two years younger than Avril while Matt (Matthew) is three
years older than Avril. On July 15, 2006, Avril married
Deryck Whibley, the lead singer of
Canadian pop-punk group Sum 41.
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