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04 Aug 2005 >>
Canada.com |
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'I Just Learned To Shut My
Mouth': Avril >>
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Teen years are tough enough
for Jane or Joe Average.
Balancing those dramatic ups
and downs with the daily
activities of a millionaire
teenage rock star can often
flat-out suck.
The usual mistakes made in
the company of a few close
friends, or in the comfort
of your own bedroom, are
magnified considerably when
your life is of concern to
the public. When MTV wants
to know about your failed
relationships and
Entertainment Tonight has
called about your latest
temper tantrum, stress can
be a killer.
It comes with the territory
of being a rock star,
according to Avril Lavigne,
but it doesn't make life any
easier.
Lavigne, who turns 21 on
Sept. 27, has been in the
public eye since she was 16,
after dropping out of school
in Grade 10 in order to make
music for a living. And
she's made headlines for the
simplest of things --
gossiping about other girls,
clowning for her friends,
bucking authority. But when
you're rich and famous, like
Lavigne is, everyday teen
behaviour can get you into
hot water.
"I learned from the
beginning you can't really
say stuff about other
artists because it gets in
every single magazine all
over the world as soon as
you do,'' Lavigne says
during a tour stop in
Germany before embarking on
the North American leg of
her extended tour. "After
the first couple of things I
said about Britney Spears I
knew I couldn't be talking
like that. So I just learned
to shut my mouth.''
The native of Napanee, Ont.,
made her name as the
anti-Britney, a
skateboarding "punk
princess'' who wore men's
ties and Chuck Taylor
sneakers and did normal teen
things on an abnormally
large public stage. By the
time she was 18, she had
sold 14 million records;
when she turned 20, she had
received eight Grammy Award
nominations and sold another
eight million records.
The key to it all was that
she looked real. Lavigne was
adamant from the start that
she wear her own clothes and
sing her own songs. It was
all an effort, despite her
impending fame, to stay true
to herself.
"I have never had a
challenge with that,'' she
says. "My first record,
people expected me because I
was 16 to have people write
for me. Right away I said,
'Well, actually I can write,
so I'd like to write.' So I
was collaborating with
people, and I never had a
problem. The first record
did so good everyone let me
do what I do. It's been like
that my entire career.
Anything and everything I
have a say in.''
Lavigne's second record,
2004's Under My Skin --
which topped the charts in
Canada and the U.S. upon its
release -- is not a
sensation on the scale of
her 2002 debut, Let Go, but
it proves there's more
substance to her than hits
like Sk8er Boi and
Complicated ever would have
indicated. While former teen
acts like Spears and
Christina Aguilera are faced
with lingering indifference
to their pre-fab pop music,
Lavigne is a safe bet to
outlast them all with her
unique pop-rock style.
She has grown up, too.
Lavigne has toned down the
goofy antics -- it's been a
while since she flipped a
middle finger at an MTV
camera or mooned the press
gallery on MuchMusic -- a
move that has seemingly won
her even more fans. And her
current world tour, which
will wrap in October after
hitting the one-year mark,
has been described by
critics and fans as her best
outing yet.
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Copyright 2004. All rights reserved. |
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