What happened to Avril Lavigne? How popstar was ‘replaced’ in wild conspiracy theory
Noughties pop star Avril Lavigne ruled the music charts when she was just a teenager.
Now, as the singer-songwriter approaches her forties, Lavigne finds herself at the centre of an ongoing conspiracy theory, claiming she’s already dead.
From 2002 to 2007 the Canadian punk-pop musician earned eight Grammy nominations, releasing hits singles including “Complicated” and “Sk8er Boi”.
Like many pop culture icons before her, Lavigne has been the subject of much-heated gossip – and a conspiracy reminiscent of Paul McCartney and Eminem.
What does the conspiracy theory suggest?
Conspirators suggest the singer, who was thrust into the spotlight at the age of 18, was overwhelmed by the media frenzy around her, so hired a lookalike actress who would go out and about pretending to be the famous singer.
Lavigne apparently met the actress Melissa Vandella in 2003 before they became close friends.
Then, Melissa – who has no online footprint – began filling in for the pop star in front of the paparazzi, supposedly even attending red-carpet events. And, as if that was not enough, theorists say Lavigne even taught Melissa how to sing like her.
Then, later that year, tragedy struck.
Lavigne lost her grandfather and, so hard was the loss to take amid her new-found fame, conspirators claim the now world-famous singer took her own life.
Not wanting to miss out on any potential revenue streams, her record company purportedly refused to recognise her death publically and continued releasing singers under Lavigne’s name after her death.
Instead, they used both Melissa’s voice and face to publish new music, meaning a number of award-winning albums, including her sophomore release Under My Skin, were not actually Lavigne’s work.
The theory alleges the title and artwork for her second album, as well as lyrics for songs like “My Happy Ending” and “The Best Years of Our Lives”, are filled with subliminal messaging.
A blog post suggests Melissa felt guilt over “participating in this farce” and so left hidden messages for fans to decipher.
Much of the “evidence” cited by theorists claims Lavigne’s appearance changed from one year to the next, with various moles and skin blemishes disappearing from her face.
There are also claims the singer inexplicably shrunk by three inches in size between 2003 and 2004.
The most frequently cited piece of “proof”, though, is a photograph of Lavigne where the name “Melissa” has been written in black ink on the front of her hand.
How did the conspiracy theory start?
A website was set up in 2011 and called “Avril is dead” in Portuguese (AvrilEstaMorta.blogspot.com).
On the page, a Brazilian blogger went into intricate detail as to why they thought Lavigne had died, analysing various songs, music videos and “before and after” photos of the singer.
The website garnered a lot of attention, with one reader commenting: “I listen to the videos and the first ‘real Avril’ has a deeper voice and the second ‘new Avril’ is thinner.”
“It really makes sense,” said another.
The theory gained even more traction in 2017 when a Twitter (now X) user posted a thread retelling the conspiracy. The post was then shared on the platform a quarter of a million times.
The viral tweet spawned a widely-spread internet meme in which it mocked “conspiracy theory thread[s]”.
Early this month, the doppelganger theory found a new audience, as the BBC released the podcast Who Replaced Avril Lavigne?
On the show, comedian Joanne McNally investigates whether the claims are true and where the idea for the Avril Lavigne replacement theory came from.
Is there any truth to it?
Lavigne herself has denied the theory on multiple occasions.
She first addressed the rumours during a TV interview on the Brazilian TV show Pânico na Band when Lavigne was asked if she had “died and was replaced by a clone”.
“Well, I’m here, and I’m here in Brazil,” the singer replied.
And we know it was not Melissa in Brazil. The creator of the original Brazilian website has since come out, explicitly stating there was no truth at all to their theory.
“The blog post was a way of showing how conspiracy theories may seem true,” the blogger said in a Facebook post, “but no matter how often [they] look convincing, [they] are just theories… not real.”
She added: “I apologise to people who believed she was dead and can feel disappointment by this revelation, but [I did it] for you to become more suspicious people… do not believe everything you see!”
