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Goodbye, on-line conspiracy principle. Welcome again, Avril Lavigne.
Lavigne — the Canadian singer whose hits like “Sk8er Boi” and “Complicated” made her a mainstay of the early 2000s — appeared on the “Call Her Daddy” podcast this week to advertise a biggest 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 energy of the web
The weird conspiracy principle has popped up sometimes, but persistently, 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 put up that makes use of Lavigne’s lyrics and pictures of her to make an argument that “Melissa” took Lavigne’s place after the success of her debut album “Let Go.”
After a BuzzFeed News report drew consideration to the speculation, 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 report: There is not any proof for this conspiracy principle.
‘So. Your identify is Avril Lavigne.’
On “Call Her Daddy,” hosted by Alex Cooper — herself an icon of the 2020s who mentioned she grew up listening to Lavigne’s music — the singer mentioned she didn’t suppose the conspiracy principle was that dangerous within the grand scheme of issues.
“I imply, it’s simply humorous to me,” Lavigne mentioned. “Like, on one finish, everybody’s like, You look the very same. You haven’t aged a day. But then different individuals are like, you recognize, there’s a conspiracy principle that I’m not me.”
But, she mentioned, issues might be worse.
“I really feel like I obtained a superb one,” she mentioned. “I don’t suppose it’s, like, unfavorable. It’s nothing creepy.”
Cooper replied, “Avril, this conspiracy principle about you is a bit creepy, come on.”
Lavigne has not typically commented on the conspiracy principle. In 2019, she instructed Entertainment Weekly that she was “flabbergasted that folks purchased into it. Isn’t that so bizarre?”
On the podcast this week, she expressed an identical sentiment.
“Obviously I’m me,” she mentioned. “It’s so dumb.”
Paul McCartney was not killed in a automotive accident within the Nineteen Sixties. Elvis is unquestionably dead. But conspiracy theories, nevertheless ridiculous, have a means of lodging themselves in folks’s unconscious, which helps their endurance within the face of overwhelming proof on the contrary.
Even Cooper couldn’t resist a couple of follow-up questions.
“Why do you suppose folks suppose that?” she requested.
“I feel that they’ve achieved that with different artists,” Lavigne answered. “I’m not the one one. I feel, like, different folks have that.”
Cooper: “I really feel like yours is, like, actually outstanding.”
“Oh, I imply, I really feel such as you may imagine it?” Lavigne mentioned, as each of them barely contained their laughter.
Still, Cooper went for a ultimate truth verify: “So. Your identify is Avril Lavigne.”
Through extra giggles and a affirmation of her id, Lavigne exclaimed: “I knew you half-believed it!”
A brand new album, a brand new tour
While 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 biggest 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 Country Music Awards.
Lavigne isn’t solely stay and kicking, however she says she can be nowhere close to achieved together with her profession. On “Call Her Daddy,” she mentioned that in addition to 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 mentioned, “and I really feel like I’ve one other 22 years forward of me.”
