Avril Lavigne Finally Releases Her Version of “Breakaway” After 20 Years

By Gabriella Sims

Avril Lavigne’s beloved debut album, Let Go, just had its 20-year anniversary. As if revisiting “Sk8ter Boi” and “Complicated” wasn’t enough of a nostalgia overload, Avril includes her rendition “Breakaway.” Many are surprised to discover that the hit song, popularized by Kelly Clarkson and featured in The Princess Diaries 2: The Royal Engagement, was actually written by Avril Lavigne and dropped from Let Go. Though it is Kelly Clarkson’s voice that we all remember playing as Princess Mia lead the children through Genovia’s Independence Day parade, Avril’s version evokes an equal level of comfort and inspiration. It’s the kind of song that makes you feel like the main character in an early 2000s coming of age movie. I can’t wait to listen to it while walking the streets of New York or while gazing out the window on my next returning flight.

Avril makes the lyrics her own in the very first verse – “grew up in a small town, and when the snow would fall down, I’d just stare out my window” – by referencing “snow” instead of “rain” while reflecting on her early years in Canada. “Breakaway” is the perfect anthem for anyone who has left their hometown to move to a new city. The first two verses describe the feeling of not fully belonging and knowing you are meant for something different. The lines “dreamin' of what could be, and if I'd end up happy” and “wanted to belong here, but somethin' felt so wrong here” capture the feeling of not being able to see a future for yourself in the town you live in. The first chorus picks up with excitement, which drives the rest of the song. She enters the third verse with a sound of hopeful confidence, conveying a desire to see the world and go anywhere different. After the next chorus she declares a specific vision of a place with skyscrapers and revolving doors that she is so determined to reach.

I imagine the last chorus as a bittersweet departure, as the second line changes from “I'll do what it takes till I touch the sky” to “though it's not easy to tell you goodbye.” It’s sentimental, acknowledging the place and people that she’ll miss, while also acknowledging feeling incomplete without seeing what other possibilities are out there. It’s not about leaving because you hate where you’re from, but rather because you feel a need to fulfill a destiny. It’s a story about taking control of your future and making your own choices – not knowing what’s ahead, but taking a chance. Avril reminds us that “Breakaway” is a coming-of-age classic that will resonate with anyone who has done the small town to big city move.

I'll spread my wings and I'll learn how to fly

Though it's not easy to tell you goodbye

I gotta take a risk, take a chance, make a change

And break away

Out of the darkness and into the sun

But I won't forget the place where I come from

I gotta take a risk, take a chance, make a change

And break away”