Avril Ramona Lavigne (born September 27, 1984, in Bellevue, Ontario, Canada) is a 40 year-old singer-songwriter who emerged in the early 2000s as a forerunner of the pop-punk genre. In 2000, at age 16, she signed a recording contract with Arista Records. Her debut, "Let Go" (2002) topped the Canadian album charts and included the hit singles "Complicated" and "Sk8er Boi." These early hits contrasted Lavigne's skate-punk persona with the bubble-gum pop aesthetic of artists like Britney Spears, earning Lavigne the title "Pop Punk Queen." In 2015, she announced that she had been diagnosed with Lyme disease. Five years later, after canceling dozens of shows due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Lavigne hosted a livestream concert to benefit charities focusing on Lyme disease awareness and prevention. Since the pandemic, she headlined the Love Sux Tour (2022-2023) with her Greatest Hits Tour kicking off the following year.