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Teen Singer-Guitarist Avril Lavigne Celebrates Top 10 Debut With L.A. Show


When was the last time this happened: a breakthrough artist spends the night its album debuted in the top 10 on The Billboard 200 chart playing the opening slot at a tiny Sunset Strip club instead of headlining its own show – or partying like a rock star elsewhere in town? How about Wednesday (June 12) night, when current it-girl Avril Lavigne, who’s all of 17 years old, played an unexpectedly aggressive early set at the Viper Room in Hollywood. Though Lavigne was there, in theory, to warm the mostly-music-industry-crowd up for the hitless bands Lo Cal AM and Plain… Read more »

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Avril's Not Too Sexy After All


Looks like Avril Lavigne can prove she’s “The Best Damn Thing” in Kuala Lumpur after all. The Malaysian government has given the go-ahead for the wannabe punk rocker’s gig on Aug. 29 as scheduled, despite scrapping the concert last week for being “too sexy.” The decision was reversed after Lavigne’s promoters assured the performance wouldn’t corrupt the mainly-Muslim country’s youth or disrupt its independence day celebration on Aug. 31. “In giving the approval, the cabinet also instructed the (arts and cultural) ministry to monitor the concert to ensure that the performances do not clash with the Malaysian culture and values,”… Read more »

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Avril's "Sexy" Show Gets Scrapped


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 »

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Avril "Too Sexy" for Malaysia?


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 »

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Sheryl, Avril, Fiona Lose Girl Power


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 »

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'70s band sues Lavigne over "Girlfriend"


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 »

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Avril Fights Off Big Acts to Hold Top Billboard Spot


Despite taking a 58-percent drop in sales during its second week in stores, Avril Lavigne’s The Best Damn Thing remains the nation’s top-selling LP, scanning more than 121,600 copies to hold onto the peak position on Billboard’s albums chart. Sultry R&B crooner Joe debuts at a distant #2, having sold 98,000 copies of his latest outing, Ain’t Nothin’ Like Me.

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Avril Nails Charts


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 »

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Avril, Christina's Multiple Personalities


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 »