Search Results for: Avril Lavigne

If Malaysian officials’ logic holds, Avril Lavigne is sexier than Gwen Stefani and the Pussycat Dolls and just as potentially morally corrupting as Beyoncé. The Canadian faux-punkette has become the latest Western pop star to face trouble in the Asian country as she was uninvited from performing a planned Kuala Lumpur gig. The Muslim-majority country’s Arts, Culture and Heritage Ministry canceled the show today amid growing protests and claims the singer was, quite simply, “too sexy.” While that, of course, is entirely subjective, the timing of the planned gig–just two days before the nation’s Independence Day on Aug. 29–was not… Read more »

Avril Lavigne is getting under the skin of Malaysian censors. A hard-line Islamic opposition party in the Southeast Asian country is calling on the government to scuttle an upcoming concert featuring the “Sk8er Boi” singer, calling her stage act way “too sexy” for local tastes. Officials with the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party’s youth wing contend Lavigne’s Aug. 29 performance in Kuala Lumpur would set a bad example for citizens, especially coming two days before the nation’s Aug. 31 Independence Day holiday. “It is considered too sexy for us…it’s not good for viewers in Malaysia,” party official Kamarulzaman Mohamed was quoted by… Read more »

Is GirlFrenzy more like a GirlFizzle? The one-off daylong music festival, set to take place in October and feature an all-estrogen lineup of singers, has been indefinitely postponed, without so much as an explanation to fans or performers. “Right Arm Entertainment and Live Nation have postponed the first annual GirlFrenzy,” read an announcement on the concert’s official site. The promoters said the show would be rescheduled sometime for 2008. Among the topliners slated to appear at the show, which was supposed to take place Oct. 27 in Irvine, California, were Sheryl Crow, Avril Lavigne, Fiona Apple, Miranda Lambert, MySpace stalwart… Read more »

Avril Lavigne is being sued by two songwriters who claim that her hit “Girlfriend” sounds like a track their American power pop band recorded in the ’70s. Tommy Dunbar, the founder of the Rubinoos, filed the suit in California’s Northern Federal District Court in San Francisco on July 2. The suit alleges that “Girlfriend” bears striking similarities to the Rubinoos’ song “I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend,” co-written by Dunbar and former Rubinoos’ road manager James Gangwer, and released by Beserkley Records in 1978. The lawsuit also names as defendants Lavigne’s publishing company, Avril Lavigne Publishing, and the co-writer of “Girlfriend,”… Read more »

Avril Lavigne was the best damn thing on the charts this week. Literally. The Canadian pop-punker debuted atop the Billboard 200 for a second consecutive time as her latest, The Best Damn Thing, sold 286,000 copies for the week ended Sunday, according to newly released Nielsen SoundScan numbers. The singer previously topped the charts with 2004’s Under My Skin, which followed the number two opening for her 2002 debut, Let Go. Powered by the hit single “Girlfriend,” The Best Damn Thing sold more than 1.5 million copies worldwide, opening at number one in 11 countries, including the U.K., Japan, Germany,… Read more »

What’s up with all the different versions of Avril in her new video? Or, for that matter, Christina, Ciara and Beyoncé? Everywhere you look, it seems some pop diva has replicated herself so she’s the star of her clip several times over. Multiple versions are nothing new – Mariah and Madonna are old pros by now – but the idea has been spreading like a video virus, with Avril and others just the latest to be infected. It got us to thinking – are they copying themselves or someone else? Avril Lavigne’s “Girlfriend” Avril Lavigne gets to have it both… Read more »

31 minutes ago Avril Lavigne’s soundtrack pit stop “Keep Holding On” from “Eragon” — top 10 at adult top 40 and top 20 at mainstream top 40 — shows the softer side of the artist . . . and basically a lady-in-waiting before reigniting her full-on persona via third full-length “The Best Damn Thing,” due April 17. Its launch single, the signature pop-punk anthem “Girlfriend,” spits beats per minute like a chainsaw, as Lavigne fires off, “Hey! Hey! You! You!/I don’t like your girlfriend/I think you need a new one/Hey! Hey! You! You!/I could be your girlfriend.” Although she has… Read more »

When Avril Lavigne released album No. 2 in 2004, the spunky teen pop star announced to the world that she was growing up. Gone were the baggy pants and skater-chick image that first earned Lavigne the media-christened nickname of “the anti-Britney.” On that year’s “Under My Skin,” punky anthems like “Sk8er Boi” were replaced largely with grammatically correct, midtempo teen-angst rockers. The album was released a few months shy of Lavigne’s 20th birthday, and the black-and-white Goth imagery made it clear that Lavigne was dealing with some intense late-teen issues. Today, Lavigne is done with all that. On April 17,… Read more »

Avril Lavigne has penciled in an April 17 release for her new RCA album, “The Best Damn Thing.” As previously reported , the first single is “Girlfriend”; it will arrive March 5 at U.S. radio outlets, and its accompanying video will premiere Feb. 26 on MTV. With its handclaps and bad-girl vibe, the track is reminiscent of Toni Basil’s “Mickey,” as Lavigne pushes past rival ladies to demand attention from a new guy: “She’s like, so whatever / you could do so much better,” she sings of her competition. Two other tracks previewed by Billboard.com follow in a similar style:… Read more »