Our municipal slogan is “Greater Napanee: Greater For Many Reasons.” And the number one reason is my girl Avril! Yay! In 2002 she released her first album ‘Let Go’ at the age of just 17! She went on to be a global smash success, putting Greater Napanee on the map! Avril has sold forty-million albums which is five times more than that band from Kingston. Bryan Adams has sold twice as many albums world-wide but he has had twice as much time, even though he doesn’t look like it! Haha! Look out, Bryan! My girl is coming for you!
Something you may not know about Avril is that she was a country music and Christian singer first. I used to see her singing Garth Brooks songs and songs from church all over our fair community. She was raised in a very Christian family of musicians and so she worked very hard. Instead of going out on weekends she would stay home and practice. Some people say that this is because she had strict parents or that there was not much to do in Napanee. I know it was actually because she was a very hard-working girl. Avril originally apprenticed with celebrity folk-singer Stephen Medd and sang like an angel. Unfortunately country and folk music needs more cultural education than our schools provide and Avril was headed for the top.
Avril had to take a more main-stream approach. Being such a smart community-minded girl meant she knew this was a good business decision that would put Napanee on the map. This strategy worked very well because in 2003 a boy from Buenos Aires contacted mayor David Remington to arrange a visit to Napanee. What do you know? He actually came! Today Youtube is full of videos with video-loggers flocking to our fair town to see where this daughter of the land grew up. This is despite a 2003 “Globe and Mail”article by Gayle MacDonald claiming that Napanee only had two stoplights. Today Napanee has at least eight. Exact figures for 2003 are hard to find but we definitely had more than two. Perhaps if she can draw enough tourists to Napanee she can finally produce a gospel album like she has always wanted to.
Avril has had her time on the wild side like many of us do. Just like the Amish do, we all like to go a little crazy when we are teenagers and that is okay. But let’s be honest too some of it is showmanship. I remember when Avril was just a shy young girl and I would talk to her around town – even talking to people like me her eyes would get big and she would not say anything. But I would comfort her and tell her that I heard her singing at the fair and she had a beautiful voice like an angel. Rock stars have to have a stage persona but at the end of the day we all have to go home and vacuum the floor like everyone else. She may say she’s just a skater girl, but we know that she’s just a girl like the rest of us. And maybe now that she has released that Christian song she can return to her roots. Maybe she can even move into one of those mansions on the Napanee River.
When I was growing up we had Bryan Adams. I remember driving through town blaring “Summer of ’69” from my boyfriend Duane’s jeep. When you’re a young girl it’s important to have a rebel to show you who you could be. My parents listened to The Weavers and Loretta Lynne – so conformist! I needed to break out of that boring culture and be me! Bryan did that for me. And, you know, you don’t have to loose your wild streak. Even if we do have to eventually settle down, we can hold onto a couple of our wilder ideas!
In 2012 CBC Radio reported that Napanee was considering either an Avril Lavigne statue or a Sir John A. MacDonald statue and the debate is ongoing. In the days of renaming schools and toppling statues I would argue that an Avril Lavigne statue is much better for public safety. After all, he only lived in Napanee for 2 years and Avril lived here for 16.
-Brenda