Avril Lavigne Through the Years: Photos
Skater girl to mega star! Avril Lavigne has been making music for more than two decades.
“I went in without deadlines, pressure [or] people telling me what direction to go in. I went in, I was like, ‘F—k this s—t, I’m making the album I’ve always wanted to make,’” the “Sk8er Boi” songstress exclusively told Us Weekly in March 2022 of recording her Love Sux album earlier that year. “I also just wanna have fun and rock out right now. So the album, I was like, let’s make a pop-punk record from front to back. Like, all my albums have been diverse … but, like, this song, this style and spirit has carried with me through my whole career from the first album to now.”
She added at the time: “Even though the album’s called Love Sux, it’s kind of just, like, all about the crazy things that it puts us through, but it’s very lighthearted and there’s a sense of humor that goes through it. Kind of just, like, having fun with all the stuff that we go through [because] it’s just inevitable. I’ve learned to laugh at, like, all the ridiculous things that love does to us. It’s very tongue-in-cheek. I mean, I started making this record coming out of a breakup. … I’m a woman now writing from all of my experience in life, and it felt fun to just, like, really go there.”
Lavigne — born and raised in Ontario, Canada — was first discovered in 1999, when she won a radio contest to perform with Shania Twain during one of her concerts. One year later, the Abbey Dawn designer was offered her first record deal with Arista Records. Lavigne’s first single, “Complicated,” was released in March 2002 before the debut of her album Let Go.
“It’s difficult to be a woman and to be heard, and people sometimes don’t take you seriously,” Lavigne told The Guardian in January 2019. “I’m highly intuitive and I’ve always got a very strong gut feeling. I’ve always felt that I’ve known what’s best for me to do and I’ve had to fight different people on this journey over those 17 years: ‘You need to do this and it needs to go Top 40.’ You make those songs ‘cause you have to, but then the stuff that’s the best on record is the album tracks.”
She continued: “I would get some songs [in] the style I really wanted. I always loved the pop-rock thing and it’s still who I am. I’m still proud of those songs and I wrote them. It wasn’t like people wrote them and gave it to me. It was like: ‘OK, I get it. You guys want singles that are going in this direction. Fine, I’ll work with you, but I’d rather be doing something else.’ You can’t be stubborn and just do everything your own way.”
The Charming voice actress has since released seven LPs, earning her a total of eight Grammy nominations.
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Lavigne’s personal life has also made headlines through the years. The Good Mourning actress — who was diagnosed with Lyme disease in 2015 — has been married twice. She exchanged vows Sum 41’s Deryck Whibley in July 2006 before filing for divorce three years later. Lavigne subsequently moved on with Nickelback crooner Chad Kroeger, tying the knot in 2013. The pair called it quits in 2015. The fashion designer found love again with Mod Sun, who coproduced Love Sux, and they got engaged in April 2022. However, the twosome called off their engagement less than one year later.
Scroll below to revisit the “Girlfriend” singer’s most memorable moments through the years:
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