  Avril Lavigne's "The Best Damn Thing" hits stores on April 17.
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"It's so funny. It's weird. It doesn't even sound like me," says Avril Lavigne of what it's like for her to hear her Mandarin translation of her single, "Girlfriend" from her forthcoming third album, "The Best Damn Thing," due April 17 on RCA/Sony BMG.
The ambitious 22-year-old recorded the chorus to the fun, fast rock song in seven different languages -- Japanese, Portuguese, German, Spanish, French, Italian, and the aforementioned Mandarin. They are all available for sale on iTunes. The English video will not be dubbed for different territories.
"Mandarin and Portuguese are really hard; French is easy and Japanese was the easiest one," says Lavigne, who spent two challenging days working with the translators, trying to get all the syllables to fit the melody and ensure she was singing them correctly. "One day I did four languages; one day I did three."
Noting how one small difference in pronunciation can change the entire meaning of a song (the equivalent of "I won't" and "I want" in English for example), Lavigne said she made sure the translators were in the studio with her when she recorded each version. "It was really, really hard," she says, with laugh more of relief than anything else. She doesn't know if she'll attempt it again with any of the other songs off "The Best Damn Thing."
Lavigne, whose name is of French origin -- la vigne meaning "vine" and Avril meaning "April" -- does not speak French.
"I wish my parents put me in French immersion," says the singer, who grew up in Napanee, Ont., and now lives in Los Angeles.
Considering how Canadian students are required to take French classes from public to high school, it's ridiculous that one doesn't graduate with at least an ability to have a conversation en francais. The curriculum needs to be changed.
"It's so bad," Lavigne agrees. "No one knows (it). Yeah, we had French class every grade, but we didn't do anything. It's not very good at all. If you go anywhere in the world, everyone can speak English."
Lavigne, whose first two albums, 2001's "Let Go" and 2004's "Under My Skin," have sold a combined 23 million copies, has toured all over the world and encountered all different languages and dialects.
"I guess from all the touring, I can hear someone talking in a different language and pick out what language they're speaking. I can be like, 'Oh, that's a German accent.' As far as learning the language, just a couple of things like, 'hi,' 'bye,' and a swear word in each language."
Speaking of swearing, Lavigne finally uses a few choice words where necessary on this album. "Girlfriend," in fact, says "I'm the motherf**ing princess" and she didn't hesitate to use it.
"No, because it was the perfect thing to say," she explains. "That's the thing on this record. I swear on like five songs. I've always wanted to because that's how I want to say it -- and that's how I would say it -- so I did it. I didn't really hold back. We just did a clean version for Target and Wal-Mart."
The lyrics to "Girlfriend" are hilarious. Lavigne who is happily married to Deryck Whibley of rock band Sum 41, put herself in the character of a rather pompous, nasty girl, who thinks she's all that and is determined to steal this guy from his girlfriend.
The words, says Lavigne, "just flew out of my mouth -- [sings]'I don't like your girlfriend / I think you need a new one.' And I was like, 'This is cool. This is really bitchy. Let's keep going in this direction. That's how it started."
Co-written with her producer Lukasz "Dr. Luke" Gottwald (Kelly Clarkson, Lady Sovereign), the song also includes lines such as:
"She's like so whatever / You could do so much better / I think we should get together now" and "In a second you'll be wrapped around my finger / 'cause I can do it better / She's so stupid / What the hell were you thinking?"
Lavigne's songs have got thousands of her fans through the heartache of a break up, a death of a loved one, to stand up to peer pressure, and develop a sense of self; hopefully none will be inspired to steal someone's boyfriend. "Hopefully not," she laughs, but she hasn't gone to her MySpace page to check out the response to her new song.
"I don't really read things people say," she admits. "I don't really need to. I do my s**t and I put it out there."
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