The Bite Magazine - Spring 2019 - Issue 24

the opposite of her previous upbeat, in-your-face guitar-based pop-punk tunes, it showed the softer and vulner- able side of the singer but upon her return to music those identity rumours surfaced on the net again. The ‘clone’ theory first appeared after Avril’s grandfather, with whom she was very close, died in 2003. Having, under- standably, not taken it well, the internet suddenly twirled with crazy theories that the singer had taken her own life and was replaced with a doppelgänger called Melissa Vandella. Another excuse behind this weird phenomenon was that the pop-punk icon famous for being a neck tie-wearing teenager who made skateboarding super cool had quickly moved over to mainstream music and couldn’t handle the pressure. With her features, change of style and hidden clues in lyrics minutely analysed, such as the shape of her eyes, the fact she wore purple eyeshadow as a teen- ager but not as an adult, her straight hair was shown in front of her shoulder in photos as Avril but wavy and behind her shoulder as the imposter, many people including her fans thought this was all true. However, three years after it first came out, the person behind the blog ‘Avril Esta Morta (Avril is Dead)’ admitted they’d completely fabricated the theory. They claimed that “the blog was a way to show how conspiracy theories can seem real” and went on to say that, “Many people believe everything they see on the internet, but is it right? There are many conspiracy theories about many things, but some seem no more convincing than theories that are not real. Avril Lavigne never died and was replaced by a lookalike, I created this theory to see if people would believe it, and thousands of people believed it was a fact.” Whether they were testing people’s reaction or not, and wanted to make people more sceptical instead of gullible, this does not detract from the fact that they could have seriously hurt the sing- er’s reputation and status.When asked about these theories recently in a radio interview with KIIS 106.5, Avril said, “Yeah some people think that I’m not the real me which is so weird. Like why would they even think that?” Personally, we don’t care much for these rumours and are glad Avril is back and absolutely love her new single. The good news is that the fake theory blog did not stop the ‘real’ Avril from using her skateboarding and grungy, pop punk image to launch a website for her rocker-chic clothing line, Abbey Dawn in 2011. This followed her two signa- ture scents – Black Star and Forbidden Rose – which she said took two years to develop each one and was her way of telling girls to “believe in themselves, to be rebellious, and to shoot for the stars.” She was also the spokeswomen for Proactiv which she said helped to clear up her problem skin. From the teenage pop-punk icon and ‘anti-Britney’ to the woman she is today, Avril has gone through many fashion changes during her career (like most artists do – look at Lady Gaga, Beyoncé, P!nk and Christina Aguilera). First it was the iconic tie-wearing skater look, followed by the Gothic looking era of Under My Skin and then the pink streaked hair sex appeal of The Best Damn Thing .When she first appeared on the scene, she was fresh in the eyes of those tired of glitzy teen disco and who wanted something hardcore and punk. It perhaps all started when she per- formed with Shania Twain on stage at the Corel Centre in Ottawa, Canada after winning a radio contest when she was 15 that led the young Avril Lavigne to declare to Shania she was going to be “a famous singer.” A year later, she was spotted by Christian singer-song- writer Stephen Medd who invited her to lend her vocals on his song ‘Touch the Sky’ for his 1999 album Quinte Spirit, followed by ‘Temple of Life’ and ‘Two Rivers’ on his next album My Window to You in 2000. Young and ambitious, even penning some of her own songs, Avril who was brought up and sang in church, caught the attention of New York songwriter and producer Peter Zizzo who has written songs for the likes of Celine Dion, Jennifer Lopez and Vanessa Carlton, after he saw a home video of her singing karaoke. “She was singing without any affection,” he said. “She was 14 and wearing these fuzzy bunny slippers, and she had a bandanna around her head. I called back and said,‘Get her to NewYork.’” The move to NewYork led to a meeting with L. A. Reid at Arista Records who signed her after watching her perform in Zizzo’s studio one evening. “It was her voice and her songwriting,” Reid said, explaining what sold him on Avril. “And she’s a dynamite-looking girl with an amazing attitude.” The melodies on ‘Complicated’,‘Sk8er Boi’ and ‘I’mWith You’ from her debut album Let Go were profoundly different from what she would have sang in church and brought her into her own sound – rocky, current and exciting. bite music celeb