Avril Scores In Top UK Music Trade Awards

Her success ranked her alongside Coldplay (songwriters of the year), David Gray (best music & lyrics), Bryan Ferry (outstanding contribution to British music), U2 (outstanding song collection) and Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys (special international award) at the ceremony in London.

Not bad for Avril - 18 last September - whose first recordings were made just four years ago with fellow Napanee, Ontario, singer-songwriter Steve Medd on his spiritual country LP "The Quinte Spirit".

The award caps a brilliant year for Avril who also scooped four Juno Awards plus a string of MTV titles globally, as well as having the honour of being nominated in both the Grammy and the Brit Awards...plus the cool fact of selling in excess of 12 million copies worldwide of her debut LP "Let Go".

One UK music journalist said: "Avril's positioned here as a serious musician with a playful side and to beat U2 and Robbie Williams in her first-ever shot at an Ivor Novello Award is superb.

"Any musician worth their salt wants to win an Ivor - as they are known - and the awards have great standing within the industry."

Her rise to success over the last year has simply been phenomenal. Type in her name in Yahoo - there are over 310,000 matches listed compared to this time last year when there was just one site...her own.

She's a great credit to Canadian music and while some may raise an eye-brow at the way Arista Records market her as a snarling skater punk princess, her street cred continues to rise thanks to her superb rendition of Knockin' on Heaven's Door (on War Child's Peace double CD), her rockin' performance on MTV's Metallica tribute show, and self-penned songs such as Why, I'm with You, and Get Over It, which show the depth of her talent.

It's good to see also that really she hasn't changed...she's still polite, respectful, hard working, creative with bags of energy...just as she was before she left Napaneee at 16 (with her old brother Matt and a manager as chaperones) for New York to come up with the first of the two LPs she was contracted by Arista to deliver.

She learned to play guitar with the help of her dad, John, who is bassist in a local band, and honed her musical talents thanks to Steve Medd and his team of fellow musicians, who organise Napanee's annual music festival.

It takes guts to move from a 5,000 population town to living in a big city where there are 5,000 people on every block, never mind then establish yourself on the big stage that is the music industry.

So credit where it's due and let's celebrate Canadian musical talent...just as the judges at the Ivors (and the Junos), plus the 12 million people who have bought her LP, have done ! Stay tuned !!