Avril Lavigne is ready to get back to the music.
After much anticipation, the singer behind huge hits including "Sk8er Boi," "Complicated" and "Here's to Never Growing Up" revealed to fans that her first single is coming sooner rather than later.
Titled "Head Above Water," the track will be released on September 19 and will come from a very personal place.
"I spent the last few years at home sick fighting Lyme Disease. Those were the worst years of my life as I went through both physical and emotional battles. I was able to turn that fight into music I'm really proud of," Avril shared on her personal website. "I wrote songs in my bed and on the couch and recorded there mostly as well. Words and lyrics that were so true to my experience came pouring out of me effortlessly. Truly... by keeping my spirits up, having goals to reach and a purpose to live for, my music helped to heal me and keep me alive."
Avril Lavigne has penned an emotional letter to fans announcing her comeback, five years on from her last album, after a difficult battle with Lyme Disease.
"Those were the worst years of my life as I went through both physical and emotional battles," Lavigne wrote in a letter on her website.
The 'Sk8er Boi' singer says she wrote and recorded her upcoming single, 'Head Above Water', from her sick bed during "one of the scariest moments of my life".
"I had accepted death and could feel my body shutting down. I felt like I was drowning," she wrote.
"Like I was going under water and I just needed to come up for air. Like I was in a river being pulled in a current."
Feeling "unable to breathe", Lavigne says she prayed to God as she wrote her next single, while in her mother's arms.
Screenshot: Twitter
Here comes the only thing that could save the week: Avril Lavigne just anounced new music.
Lavigne revealed in a letter to her fans posted to her website that she is “so excited to be returning with new music” and her first new single off her forthcoming album, called “Head Above Water” will be out on September 19. That’s not even two weeks away! Honestly wasn’t expecting something so good to happen again so soon but here we are.
In the letter to her fans, Lavigne revealed much more than her career plans—she discussed her battle with Lyme disease as well:
“I have decided to be truthful about my struggle, open and more vulnerable than ever before. And to be honest, part of me doesn’t want to talk about being sick because I want it to all be behind me, but I know I have to. Because not only is it a part of my life, I need to bring awareness to the severity of Lyme Disease. A single bug bite can fuck you up hard. People aren’t aware that Lyme must be treated almost immediately. Often if they are aware, they go untreated simply because they can’t get a Lyme diagnosis! And even when they do get a diagnosis, a lot of times they simply can’t afford the treatment.”
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Lavigne goes on to write, “I want more than ANYTHING to be back up on stage. To be holding my guitars and running around. To sing my heart out and travel around the world to see all of my fans. I will do EVERYTHING I can to get back up on stage, to travel, to sing to you, to work again.”
This is to be Lavigne’s first album in five years, which means I haven’t had new music to listen to as I cry on my stoop in the rain for a very long time.
Avril Lavigne is officially coming back — and fans are ecstatic.
The singer, 33, announced in a heartfelt open letter that her first single “Head Above Water” will drop on Sept. 19 and that she hopes “more than ANYTHING to be back up on stage.”
“Thank you for waiting so patiently as I fought through and still continue to fight the battle of my lifetime,” the “I'm with You” singer wrote of her long, debilitating battle with Lyme disease.
“[‘Head Above Water’] is the first song I wrote from my bed during one of the scariest moments of my life. I had accepted death and could feel my body shutting down,” she adds. “I felt like I was drowning. Like I was going under water and I just needed to come up for air. Like I was in a river being pulled in a current. Unable to breathe.”
I wrote a letter to my fans on my website. https://t.co/R2PuqcKx0d pic.twitter.com/xbmS0WifO1 — Avril Lavigne (@AvrilLavigne) September 6, 2018
On Saturday, Lavigne shared a photo showing herself fully submerged in water, hinting about the release of the single, which she says she wrote while in the arms of her mother.
“My mother held me. In her arms, I wrote the first song that I am releasing to tell my story,” the singer continued in her note. “I later met a beautiful soul, Travis Clark, and we sat down at the piano and sculpted the rest of the song.”
Lavigne added that while the past few years have been “the worst years of my life,” she says she was able to “turn that fight into music I’m really proud of.”
“Words and lyrics that were so true to my experience came pouring out of me effortlessly. Truly… by keeping my spirits up, having goals to reach and a purpose to live for, my music helped to heal me and keep me alive,” the Ontario-born artist says.
The letter comes just two weeks after she shared behind-the-scenes footage of her upcoming music video, presumably for music in the new era, and tweeted a photo captioned, “I can’t wait for September.”
I can’t wait for September 🌈💖🎼✨⭐️🌟💫chilling this weekend and prepping for my video shoot this week ! Fuck yasssss pic.twitter.com/gEng2zh5GF — Avril Lavigne (@AvrilLavigne) August 18, 2018
Lavigne also changed her Twitter cover photo and profile picture, in addition to adding a mosaic photo depicting the art of her new single cover on Instagram.
In her letter, Lavigne emphasized that she decided to be honest and open about her struggle with Lyme disease because “a single bug bite can f— you up hard” and “people aren’t aware that Lyme must be treated almost immediately.”
“I have decided to be truthful about my struggle, open and more vulnerable than ever before. And to be honest, part of me doesn’t want to talk about being sick because I want it to all be behind me, but I know I have to,” the singer added.
Earlier this year, a source close to Lavigne told PEOPLE that the singer-songwriter “purposefully lived a quiet life” while recovering from Lyme disease, which she was diagnosed with in 2014.
“I could barely eat, and when we went to the pool, I had to leave and go lie in bed,”she told PEOPLE about her disease for a cover story in 2015. “My friends asked, ‘What’s wrong?’ I didn’t know.”
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In her letter, she explained that The Avril Lavigne Foundation website will feature resources for people to prevent the disease and will aim to accelerate Lyme research.
“We’re about to launch an initiative that YOU can help us with — so that together, we can help more individuals affected by Lyme disease get the treatment they desperately need to come out the other side of this insidious disease,” she wrote.
The singer thanked her fans for waiting patiently and supporting her while she recovered.
“I’m so excited to be returning with new music and to have you on this journey with me,” she writes. “Let’s do this! New era!”
