Long before Billie Eilish stole the show for teenage rock, Avril Lavigne was the teen pop sensation of the 2000s, and she's very special to almost everyone who grew up in the time. Today is our favorite emo-pop-punk fstar's 36th birthday, and it's time to reminisce her boldness, fearless attitude, and rambunctious sound.
Aged 17, the Canadian pop-punk star came on to the scene with her hit number, Complicated, in a music video wearing low-slung skate pans, ramrod straight hair, and a tie. Her unconventional style caught on quickly, and soon everybody singing along to "Complicated" was wearing her kind of quirky hodgepodge-punk clothing too.
Shortly after Lavigne became a household name, and she kept on giving hit after hit - who could forget "Sk8r Boi" or "Girlfriend?" - giving wayward teenage girls anthems to live by for years to come.
That is, until 2013, when her self-titled album was released, with songs like Bitchin' Summer and Here's To Never Growing Up.
The mid/late 2000 songs were rather lighter, with the singer dressing up in pink, and adding a touch of positivity to her music. This shift in her style was unacceptable to many who used her music to embrace their dark side. Her music career started going downhill, as she started to embrace femininity for what it was.
The new songs didn't gain as much recognition as the old emo-punk rock did. People had already become obsessed with her music surrounding heavy, dark topics that, at the time, were quite unusual for young women to talk about. They expected her to continue coming off as a goth, sullen girl singing about how hard life is.
Because of her sudden shift in tone, fans started spinning a conspiracy theory about what had really happened to Lavigne, alleging that she had died and been replaced by her label with a body double who used to go to events for her when her mother died so they could continue to profit off of her name. The theory caught on with a surprising number of people, and it is still mentioned - albeit usually as a joke - to this day.
What most of us didn't realize at the time was that Lavigne had evolved from taking petty remarks to the heart and making songs about them. She was now creating more intimate and therapeutic music, trying to look at the world around her in a kinder, more positive way, for both herself and her fans, after going through a very difficult time in her life and falling off the radar for a while.
Recently, in February 2019, the artist made a comeback with her sixth studio album, Head Above Water, the songs of which were about her fight with Lyme disease and how she overcame it. This was also when the rebel icon confirmed that the rumor that she had died and been replaced by a look-alike had no truth to it.
Here is the piece of the puzzle that those who created the theory were really missing: After she turned 29, Lavigne started to feel exhausted. This is when she was diagnosed with anxiety and chronic fatigue, which really was Lyme disease, the star later figured. She was bedridden for two years and, at one point, was sure that she would die.
Talking about her worst day with the disease in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Lavigne said, "It was that bad that night, and I was like, 'I don’t think I’m going to make it.' I think I was about to die because I had this weird feeling of, 'Whoa. I feel like I’m on a cliff and I’m about to fall, and it’s dark.'"
She continued, "Coming out of it I felt like I was underwater drowning, coming up for air. That’s when I literally said, 'God, help me keep my head above water.' I wasn’t even thinking about music — it just happened."
To support and raise awareness for those fighting the Lyme disease, Lavigne has announced a special live stream concert, #FlightLyme, which will happen on October 25, 2020. The proceeds will go to the Global Lyme Alliance and Avril Lavigne Foundation.
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