Recommendations of the Editorial team
From the ROLLING STONE archive April 25, 2016:
Every good conspiracy theory comes with solid arguments. Those who still disbelieve are bombarded with facts whose impact they simply cannot escape.
Avril Lavigne fans beware: the Canadian singer took her own life in 2003. At least that’s what a Portuguese homepage claimed.
Depression is said to have driven her to suicide, and the singer is now a double.
Only 1.55 meters tall
But the masterminds didn’t count on the trained eyes of any observers.
You can literally tell from the nose that the new Avril is a fake. The completely changed shape speaks volumes and is in no way the result of cosmetic surgery.
Likewise, the doppelganger is only 1.55 m tall, while the original Lavigne was three centimeters taller. A little early for age-related shrinkage…
In addition, the voice has changed and is higher. Coincidence? Can it be explained biologically? No! All signs that this is not the real Avril Lavigne. So: no doppelganger, no clone.
The theory spread and song lyrics were soon quoted in which the new Avril hinted at the disappearance of the original Avril. It’s certainly not a coincidence that the song ‘Slipped Away’ says: “It wasn’t a deception, it happened, you died”.
But first and foremost is the changed exterior. In addition to the doppelganger’s clearly telltale nose, the change in Lavigne’s look is THE ultimate indication: “Original Avril said she would never wear cute, fashionable clothes in the style of a diva (she hated singers who dressed preppy and she rejected the term ‘diva’). The new one dresses exactly the same and gets the title of diva without it bothering her.”
Just fraud!
But then a photo circulated online showing the singer shopping at a time when she was actually confined to bed due to illness. Is the original Avril still alive? Did she simply want to withdraw from the hustle and bustle of public life and therefore spun this web of lies in order to finance herself through shares in the hits of the new Avril?
Then the big turning point came when one of the initiators of the theory suddenly announced via Facebook that it was all just lies and fraud: “The blog was my way of showing that conspiracy theories may seem true. Many people believe everything they see on the internet, but is it really true? […] Avril Lavigne never died, she was never replaced by a double, I created this theory to see if people would believe it, and thousands believed it to be true.”
And these masses, once convinced of Lavigne’s death, could not be changed. It seemed much more likely that the post came from a hacker who wanted to undermine the community.
By the way, this is what Lavigne looks like in May 2017:
When asked about all the events during an interview in Brazil, it turned out Avril Lavigne irritated. Surely this was just a clever deceptive maneuver of the forgery. Or not? Does Avril Lavigne have a doppelganger? A clone?