Goodbye, on-line conspiracy principle. Welcome again, Avril Lavigne.
Lavigne — the Canadian singer whose hits like “Sk8er Boi” and “Sophisticated” made her a mainstay of the early 2000s — appeared on the “Name Her Daddy” podcast this week to advertise a best hits album out subsequent month, a brand new tour and a efficiency at Glastonbury, Britain’s largest music competition.
She additionally used the looks to inform followers that she is alive and herself.
And that she was most undoubtedly not changed by a physique double named Melissa Vandella after dying greater than 20 years in the past.
The ability of the web
The weird conspiracy principle has popped up often, but constantly, across the web for a lot of Lavigne’s profession, and the publicity round her new tour has ignited one other spherical of consideration.
Many on-line explainers have traced its origin to Brazil, and a 2011 weblog publish that makes use of Lavigne’s lyrics and photographs of her to make an argument that “Melissa” took Lavigne’s place after the success of her debut album “Let Go.”
After a BuzzFeed Information report drew consideration to the idea, it appeared in mainstream press roundups of conspiracy theories, from the Guardian, to Rolling Stone, to the BBC. It additionally has its personal Wikipedia entry.
For the document: There isn’t any proof for this conspiracy principle.
‘So. Your identify is Avril Lavigne.’
On “Name Her Daddy,” hosted by Alex Cooper — herself an icon of the 2020s who stated she grew up listening to Lavigne’s music — the singer stated she didn’t assume the conspiracy principle was that dangerous within the grand scheme of issues.
“I imply, it’s simply humorous to me,” Lavigne stated. “Like, on one finish, everybody’s like, You look the very same. You haven’t aged a day. However then different persons are like, you recognize, there’s a conspiracy principle that I’m not me.”
However, she stated, issues may very well be worse.
“I really feel like I bought a superb one,” she stated. “I don’t assume it’s, like, detrimental. It’s nothing creepy.”
Cooper replied, “Avril, this conspiracy principle about you is somewhat creepy, come on.”
Lavigne has not typically commented on the conspiracy principle. In 2019, she instructed Leisure Weekly that she was “flabbergasted that individuals purchased into it. Isn’t that so bizarre?”
On the podcast this week, she expressed the same sentiment.
“Clearly I’m me,” she stated. “It’s so dumb.”
Paul McCartney was not killed in a automobile accident within the Nineteen Sixties. Elvis is unquestionably useless. However conspiracy theories, nonetheless ridiculous, have a means of lodging themselves in individuals’s unconscious, which helps their endurance within the face of overwhelming proof on the contrary.
Even Cooper couldn’t resist a number of follow-up questions.
“Why do you assume individuals assume that?” she requested.
“I feel that they’ve completed that with different artists,” Lavigne answered. “I’m not the one one. I feel, like, different individuals have that.”
Cooper: “I really feel like yours is, like, actually distinguished.”
“Oh, I imply, I really feel such as you would possibly consider it?” Lavigne stated, as each of them barely contained their laughter.
Nonetheless, Cooper went for a ultimate truth test: “So. Your identify is Avril Lavigne.”
By means of extra giggles and a affirmation of her id, Lavigne exclaimed: “I knew you half-believed it!”
A brand new album, a brand new tour
Whereas Lavigne is now not on the excessive heights of her early 2000s fame, her music has endured. The phrases to “Sk8er Boi” stay completely etched within the recollections of many millennials.
The best hits album will probably be her first since “Love Sux” in 2022. On Thursday night time, she debuted the only “Bulletproof” with the nation singer Nate Smith on the American Nation Music Awards.
Lavigne is just not solely reside and kicking, however she says she can be nowhere close to completed along with her profession. On “Name Her Daddy,” she stated that apart from her coming tour, she was wanting ahead to branching out creatively and turning “Sk8er Boi” right into a film.
“It’s been so lengthy, it’s been 22 years,” she stated, “and I really feel like I’ve one other 22 years forward of me.”
