Avril Ramona Lavigne (born September 27, 1984) is a Canadian pop punk Juno Award-winning singer-songwriter and occasional actress who was originally known for her "skate punk" persona, but has since begun to shed that image in favour of a more sophisticated, feminine style. Her two albums, Let Go (2002) and Under My Skin (2004), topped the charts in several countries.[1]
Although her surname is of French origin, she herself does not speak French [citation needed] and her name is pronounced in an anglicized way, somewhat as [ləˈviːn] ("La-veen"), rather than [laˈviːɲ]. Her first name, Avril, is French for April, but is also pronounced in an anglicized, way as [ˈ?vrəl] ("Av-ril"), rather than [aˈvril]. Lavigne in French means the vine or the vineyard.Born in Belleville, Ontario, to Franco-Ontarian Roman Catholic parents John and Judy Lavigne, Avril, at age five, moved with her family to Napanee, Ontario, Canada, where she sang in a church choir and taught herself to play the guitar. [citation needed]
