Avril Lavigne is a Canadian pop rock/punk singer-songwriter from Belleview, Ontario.

Born 27^th September 1984, Lavigne began singing at the age of two. At fourteen her father built her a home studio, complete with microphone, drum kit, keyboard, rhythm and bass guitars, and Lavigne soon began to perform at country fairs and write her own material.

In 1998 she won a radio competition and got the opportunity to appear with Shania Twain on tour. Off the back of this she was invited to perform on local singer Stephen Medd’s 1999 album Quinte Spirit.

In 2000 Lavigne auditioned for the head of Arista Records, Antonio Reid, and was immediately signed to a two album contract. She dropped out of school and moved to America to record her debut album…

Let’s Go was released in June 2002, when Lavigne was just seventeen. It shot to number two on the Billboard 200, reaching number one in the UK and Canada. It eventually went on to sell over sixteen million copies – making it one of the biggest selling albums of the decade – and produced three Billboard Hot 100 Top 10 singles: Complicated, Sk8er Boi and I’m With You. The album earned a total of eight Grammy Award nominations and led to the singer being named Best New Artist at the 2002 MTV Video Music Awards.

Lavigne’s next album, 2004’s Under My Skin, was also a huge commercial success. It debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and has, to date, sold over ten million copies worldwide. It spawned the Top 30 singles My Happy Ending and Don’t Tell Me and led to her performing on her first world tour.

The singer’s third album The Best Damn Thing was released in April 2007. It was another Billboard 200 number one hit and has sold over seven million records worldwide to date. The lead single Girlfriend shot to the top spot on the Hot 100 and was the biggest selling song of 2007, while the follow up singles When You’re Gone, Hot and The Best Damn Thing all charted.

In January 2010 Lavigne released the single Alice for the soundtrack to the Tim Burton film Alice in Wonderland, and she is currently working on material for her fourth studio album.

Kylie Minogue is an Australian pop/dance singer-songwriter and actress.

Born 28^th May 1968 in Melbourne, Minogue began her career as a child actor, starring in several Australian television productions before landing a starring role as Charlene Robinson in the megahit soap opera Neighbours. After an impromptu performance of the Little Eva song The Loco-Motion at a cast charity event, Minogue was signed to Mushroom Records.

She released her debut single Locomotion with Mushroom Records in Australia in 1987, where she scored a number one hit. It was later released and reached the Top 5 in both the UK and the US. This was followed by the Stock, Aitken & Waterman hit I Should Be So Lucky, which reached number one in Australia and the UK, and her debut album Kylie – 1988’s bestselling album with over 6.5 million sales worldwide. The singles Got to Be Certain and Je Ne Sais Pas Pourquoi also reached the Top 5 in the UK and Australia.

Minogue’s next album, 1989’s Enjoy Yourself, reached number one in the UK and spawned the number one hits Hand on Your Heart and Tears on My Pillow, as well as the Top 5 singles Wouldn’t Change a Thing and Never Too Late. This was followed by 1990’s Rhythm of Love, which produced four UK Top 10 singles: Better the Devil You Know, Step Back in Time, What Do I Have to Do? and Shocked.

Three more albums followed in the 1990s, producing Top 20 hits like Give Me Just a Little More Time, If You Were with Me Now, Confide in Me, Put Yourself in My Place, Did It Again and Breathe, but it was 2000’s Light Years that saw Minogue return to the top of the pop charts. Its lead single Spinning Around reached number one in the UK and Australia, while On a Night Like This and Kids (ft. Robbie Williams) both hit the Top 5.

2001’s Fever cemented Kylie’s position as ‘the princess of pop’, with the megahit single Can’t Get You Out of My Head reaching number one in over forty countries worldwide and the follow up singles In Your Eyes, Love at First Sight and Come Into My World all reaching the UK Top 10.

Since then, Minogue has released 2003’s Body Language, 2007’s X and 2010’s Aphrodite, scoring Top 20 hits with Slow, Red Blooded Woman, Chocolate, 2 Hearts, Wow, In My Arms and All the Lovers.

Christina Aguilera is an American pop singer-songwriter.

Born on 18^th December 1980 in New York, Aguilera aspired to be a singer from a very young age. In 1993 she joined the Disney Channel’s variety show The New Mickey Mouse Club and in 1998 was chosen to record the song reflection for the Disney film Mulan, which was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Original Song. Within a week of the single release, Aguilera was signed to RCA Records and immediately began to record her first album.

The singer’s debut self-titled album was released in August 1999 and made Aguilera an overnight teen superstar. Christina Aguilera shot to number one on the Billboard 200 and produced three US number one singles: Genie in a Bottle, What a Girl Wants and Come On Over Baby (All I Want Is You). It received three Grammy Award nominations, winning Best New Artist (beating rival Britney Spears) and, to date, has sold over ten million copies.

Also in the year 2000, Aguilera released her first and (so far) only Spanish language album Mi Reflejo, which won the Latin Grammy for Best Female Pop Vocal Album, as well as a festive album My Kind of Christmas. In 2001, she recorded a cover of Lady Marmalade with Pink, Lil’ Kim and Mýa for the film Moulin Rouge, which reached number one in the US and the UK and won the group a Grammy Award for Best Pop Collaboration.

Aguilera’s second English studio album, Stripped, which gave the young star a far more adult image, produced the hit singles Dirrty and Beautiful and was nominated for four Grammy Awards. Her third English album Back to Basics was yet another change of direction, with more of a 1920s jazz/soul feel, and produced the singles Ain’t No Other Man, Hurt and Candyman.

Aguilera’s fourth album Bionic was released in June 2010 and hit number three on the Billboard 200, selling over 100,000 copies in its first week.

Lily Allen is a Grammy Award-nominated British alternative pop/rock singer-songwriter and musician.

Allen was born 2^nd May 1985 in Hammersmith, London, the daughter of actor and musician Keith Allen and film producer Alison Owen. She learned to play piano and sing in her teens and dropped out of school at fifteen to concentrate on her music full time. She created several demo tapes and in 2005 started to post them on her MySpace account. Within just a few months she had accumulated thousands of followers, which persuaded the label Regal Recordings to release an album of her material.

Alright, Still was released in July 2006. It was a critical and commercial hit, debuting at number two in the UK Albums Chart and number twenty on the US Billboard 200, and has sold over 2.5 million copies worldwide to date. The lead single Smile spent two weeks at number one in the UK, while LDN, Alfie and Shame for You all reached the Top 20. The album was nominated for Best Alternative Music Album at the 50^th Grammy Awards.

Allen followed this success with It’s Not Me, It’s You, released in February 2009. It debuted at number one in the UK, Australia and Canada, and at number five in the US, and won Allen her first Brit Award for British Female Solo Artist. The album’s first single The Fear reached number one in the UK and stayed there for four consecutive weeks, while the second single Not Fair reached number four. The album’s third international single Fuck You, written about George Bush, was her highest charting hit in the US, while the subsequent singles 22 and Who’d Have Known both charted in the UK Top 40. Allen also scored a Top 30 hit in Australia with Back to the Start.

Lily Allen’s year-long It’s Not Me, It’s You World Tour finished in March 2010 and she is currently taking an indefinite hiatus.

Cascada are an electronic pop/dance group from Bonn, Germany, consisting of lead vocalist Natalie Horler and producers DJ Yanou and DJ Manian.

DJ Yanou first gained prominence after collaborating with DJ Sammy and vocalist Do on the 2002 UK number one hit Heaven - a dance cover of the Bryan Adams song. He met singer Natalie Horler, born on 23^rd September 1981, and fellow DJ Manian soon afterwards and together they formed the group Cascade (the name was later changed for copyright reasons).

The group first achieved fame in 2006 with the single Everytime We Touch, which reached number two in the UK (and ultimately became the bestselling dance song of the year), as well as hitting number one on the US Billboard Dance chart. This was followed by their debut album of the same name which achieved platinum status in the UK and included the singles Truly Madly Deeply and Miracle.

The group followed this success with 2007’s Perfect Day, which was a collection of cover songs including Avril Lavigne’s Sk8er Boi, Pink’s Just like a Pill and Patti Smith’s Because the Night, and the group achieved a UK and European Top 10 hit with a cover of Mark Willis’ What Hurts the Most.

In 2009, the group released their most successful album to date – Evacuate the Dancefloor. The title single became the group’s first number one in the UK Singles Chart, as well as reaching the Top 5 in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland and New Zealand and being certified platinum in the US, while follow up hit singles Fever and Dangerous also performed well. The album subsequently become a bestseller around the world and earned a number of nominations at the International Dance Music Awards.

Horler recently revealed that the group is currently working on their fourth album, with a new single to be released later in 2010.