Avril Lavigne: The eternal skater girl celebrates her 40th birthday

Avril Lavigne (40) became a superstar at the tender age of 17. When her debut album “Let Go” was released in 2002, it was an instant hit with mega hits like “Complicated”, I’m with you” and “Sk8er Boi” and made the Canadian musician a new icon previously male-dominated pop punk scene.

Shooting star with a mind of her own

From the start, Lavigne approached the matter with utmost self-confidence. After she landed her first record deal with Arista Records at the age of 16, she consistently put her mind to the recording of her debut album. In order to give her self-written songs the sound she wanted, she fired her first producer, moved from New York to Los Angeles to continue working with Grammy winner Clif Magness (67) and the producer collective “The Matrix” and complete the work complete. After the extremely successful album was released in the summer of 2002, the teenager immediately started a world tour under the full-bodied title “Try to Shut Me Up”.

Long-lasting identification figure

With her rebellious rock attitude and her idiosyncratic look, the young go-getter was exactly in tune with the times. Pretty quickly, the singer with her raven-black emo eyes became an identification figure for a whole generation of growing “skater girls”. As the current almost 14 million followers of her Instagram channel prove, not much has changed to this day. Just a few days ago she completed an extensive “Greatest Hits Tour”, which took her through all sold-out concert arenas in North America and Europe.

With her first “Greatest Hits” album, the eternal pop-punk princess takes stock of her work to date after 22 years in the music business. In addition to the mega hits from her debut album, there are also numerous others that were added in the last two decades, such as the defiant love ballad “Don’t Tell me” from her second album “Under My Skin”, the rock hit ” Girlfriend” from 2007 or the pop-punk anthem “Bite Me” from the last album “Love Sux” (2022).

“What an incredible journey”

Avril Lavigne commented emotionally on the completed “Greatest Hits Tour”: “These songs have played such an important role in the last 22 years of my life, and it is truly a gift to be able to share them with each and every one of you at every show .Thank you to everyone who has come to these concerts and stood by me over the years. Thank you for all the smiles, light and support over the years. What an incredible journey it has been.”

Was she replaced by a doppelganger?

It is largely established fact that today’s birthday girl is actually the real Avril Ramona Lavigne, born on September 27, 1984 in Belleville, Ontario. However, this year the singer again had to take a stand on persistent conspiracy theories, according to which the “real” Avril Lavigne died shortly after the release of her debut album and was then replaced by a doppelganger named “Mellissa Vandella” by her greedy management.

As supposed evidence for this doppelganger theory, comparison images are used, among other things, which are supposed to prove that the alleged fake Avril was missing birthmarks, that her nose and jawline were changed and that the artist had suddenly shrunk significantly. The fact that she struck a slightly less punky tone on her second album than her predecessor also suggests to some conspiracy theorists that she was replaced at the time.

“Obviously I’m me – it’s so stupid”

“I just think it’s funny,” Lavigne explained a few weeks ago. There she stated with amusement: “On the one hand, everyone says: ‘Oh my God, you still look the same! You haven’t aged a day.’ But on the other hand, there is a conspiracy theory that “I am not myself.” However, there was really nothing to this, she concluded: “Obviously I am me – it’s so stupid.”