Christa
Age: 18

SK8ER BOI: Becoming Avril Lavinge
By: Christa Madri.

“Five, four, three, two, one...” came the coundown. “No, wait! Guys, where’s my mic?! My mic, where is it! This is imposible, you can’t lose your mic when the crowd’s waiting for your performance, the most important performance!” The microphone wouldn’t appear, then the guy who’s in charge of sound handed me one.
“Testing... testing... This one doesn’t work!” The public was waiting and we were running a flash sound-check ‘cus we hadn’t done it before, at least not with the whole band in place; plus, there was another problem: If I wanted to go through with all the moves (jumps, kicks, punches, walking around and running around) a mic that’s got a cable wound up in other stuff wouldn’t do, I needed to move around. Get me a mic! Luis (bass) was rehearsing Lemuel(drums) and Eduardo (guitar) and Ana (second voice) were making sure their sound was good, ready, and set.

I just couldn’t believe it, not even after three hours of being Avril Lavigne. I remember the first time I saw the video for Complicated I thought “Man! She’s good... if she keeps it up, if she really wrote that song, she’s gonna go big;” and she did. Weeks later mom brought a copy of Let Go from the States (I live in Honduras) and I couldn’t help falling in love with the songs. It was around February when the whole deal started though, when I heard that one of my best friends had been asked to sing as Avril for a festival at her university. How excited I was to hear that! I phoned her up asap and asked her to tell me the story, and so she did; “but I’m not sure if I’m gonna do it,” she added at the end “I’m not too sure it’s the style I wanna sing.” At that moment Heaven opened up for me.
“Hey, if you’re not too interested in doing it, if you decide not to do it, let me know, I’d LOVE to do that performance,” I told her. Ana, my friend, agreed to it and told me she’d let me know when she talked to the guy that was organizing all of this, Luis. Couple of days later I spoke with him and he said he’d audition me to see if I was ok, but there was a problem, he was very doubtful about letting me do it.
All this time I thought we’d be doing “Complicated” so I practiced my lungs off trying to get it right; all the high and low pitches, the notes, the vibe, and the ending which never came out right. I kept praying that things would come out smoothly and trusted that they would (supernatural help always comes in handy).
Time went by slowly and about a month later we had the audition and he liked my singing, but this time we decided to do Sk8er boi instead. We continued to rehearse our vocalization and worked on putting the band together, calling up people to see who was available and trying to borrow the instruments. To my content Ana was gonna be working with us as a second voice. –Thanx Sourgirl, it was a blast you know and thanx for understanding me and letting me have it my way, thanx for ur support babe, you mascabre, love ya!!! –.
Now I just had two problems unresolved: how to sing and jump around at the same time and the outfit. You probably know what happened next; I had to record the video and study “Princess Punk”, her gestures and moves, her voice, and practice jumping and singing at the same time (if you try you’ll see it’s quite hard cus you can’t breathe correctly). Getting that descently done took a couple of weeks... Now for the outfit I had to track down the all- stars and finally, for my b-day, I was gifted with a beautiful pair of dark-red ones (ocre). The rest was sorted out by borrowing stuff from dad: his cap, his tie, his stockings which I had to stripe cus you don’t get any striped like Avril’s down here; a dog chain, a black sock I had to cut, some bracelets, the makeup, the straight hair... It was all set the day before the show.

Thursday April 10, 2003. That was the big day, I’ll never forget it. It was summer festival at the university (it’s not spring over here, it’s summer in april even if it rained all while round). Ana and I got there really early for the soundcheck, but the guys weren’t anywhere in sight so we had to wait for them. -It was so cool to me cus I got to see a lot of my highschool friends, some I hadn’t seen since we graduatel last November, and we had a blast getting me dressed-up and made-up in the girl’s room, just like in the old times-.
Lol. It was really cool walking around the campus looking like Avril, there was no person unaware of my existence. People over here are usually very conservative about their clothes, so you get a girl dressed up in all-stars, striped stockings, bunch of bracelets, backwards cap and tie and nobody will miss her. It’s a good way of getting the cute guy’s attention, I highly reccomend it girls ;o) ! I mean, it was so wonderful cus even people I didn’t know would come up to me saying “hey, why do you look so much like Avril Lavigne?” Some others would laugh and make fun of me, but I mean, you don’t give a damn about that kinda people when you’re having the time of your life !
“... take a look at me and you’ll see I’m for real, I feel what only I can feel and if that don’t appeal to you let me know and I’ll go cus I flow better when my colors show and that’s the way it should be!...”

The band finally began playing, this was the time to start the show! I went sidestage and then came in running as the guitar strummed along the chords of Sk8er boi (if I close my eyes I can still hear them in my head). For the next three minutes the experience was incredible. I remember the hair and wind in my face, the crowd cheering loudly, all wild and excited, Ana’s voice comming from beside me, my friends standing over there in front jumping and smiling and recording, guys going crazy, girls having fun and everybody jamming along to sk8er boi; and I was the one singing it!
It’s an indescribable feeling, being up on stage being one of your favorite singers, dressed up like her and singing her music. -Avril rocks!- I mean, we’d worked so hard on this, I’d prayed so much for it (cus miracles do happen), I’d kept it a secret for a while not to spoil the dream, and then when I told I was lucky enough to get all my buddies to go there and support me, support us. The sky had been gray all afternoon, but when we sang the sun came out and it got warmer, that kind of sun that comes out and gives you hope and you feel tingly and full of energy all over; it was like that. I’m so grateful to all of those who made this posible, you know who you are, a big hug ! It’s amazing that it can’t be put down in words and images, it’s got to be lived to be understood...
By the time we came downstage all of us were feeling pleased, fulfiled with the act; we were full of that energy you’ve got right after you finish a show. It was then when they announced the winners and we got 3rd place ! It’s all very important actually cus it’s the first time (if i’m not mistaken) that a girl in this society appears in this kind of event; it’s always boy bands and no girls, so we put in the girl power and were the first girls to participate in a rock-band competition. I believe Avril does that too; who said us females couldn’t do what the guys do ?!
Afterwards we got congratulated by everybody and some guys from the tv and radio became interested in us. It’s a good start, and we’re planning to go on doing what we like to do, so God willingly this won’t be the last time when I get to become Avril.
Peace to everybody and thanx for readin’ till the end. All I can tell u is that dreams really come true, but you gotta work your ass off for that to happen; it all really depends on us and on how we take the chances that come along. Don’t rush it it;, things happen, and not only do they happen, but they happen when you least expect them too. Greetings to Avril and the bois, and to all the Avril fans out there all my love and support. We rock poeple! Congrats to alavigne.com, keep it going. PS. u can write to me at polkadotspk@hotmail.com.