“I would come into the studio with my guitar and notepad and people didn’t want to listen to me. They tried to just give me songs – and I hated that”: Avril Lavigne’s fight to create the smash hit that would inspire Olivia Rodrigo and Billie Eilish

Avril Lavigne in 2002.

Complicated by Avril Lavigne sits as one of the most successful debut singles of all-time.

With this song – and follow-up single Sk8er Boi – the Canadian singer-songwriter sealed her place as one of the most talked-about artists of 2002. And while it seems like her journey to stardom was fairly straightforward, the material that ended up on her very first full-length, Let Go, was actually a few years in the making.