When Avril first hit the music industry in 2002 with her debut album she released such exceptional hits as Sk8er Boi and Complicated. The “pop-punk queen’s” first record is still the best-selling album of the 21st century from a Canadian artist, but it could have been even bigger if she kept one track.
In the early 2000s Avril wrote a little song called Breakaway. The emotional track features some powerfully personal lyrics – but Avril could not get on board with how it sounded. She explained last year: “Breakaway was a song that I worked on and co-wrote for my first album, Let Go, and I just didn’t like it. It was just a ballad, and I was like: ‘[It] feels like a church song.’ And I was just, like, not there.” The star revealed the song later went to American Idol winner Kelly Clarkson, before adding: “I’m pretty sure it went number one.”
Kelly is still an extremely popular star to this day, and Breakaway is a key part of her history as she named her second album after it. After winning the aforementioned singing competition in 2002 she released her first record, Thankful. Two years later she dropped her follow-up album, Breakaway, to enormous commercial success. The album hit store shelves in 2004 and has since gone 6x platinum after selling more than 6 million copies worldwide. From the record, Kelly released a slew of singles, including Since U Been Gone, Because of You, Walk Away and Breakaway.
Although Kelly’s success was boosted with Avril’s song, the Canadian star had nothing but good things to say about the American singer.
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Avril responded: “No, but that would be fun,” before adding: “On my last tour, I actually performed that and added that song into my setlist for the first time.”
Breakaway was also featured prevalently in pop culture in 2004 as it was released by Walt Disney Records. The song was included in the soundtrack of the 2004 film The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement.
The film starred Anne Hathaway and Julie Andrews as the Queen and Princess of Genovia. During a pivotal moment, Kelly’s song began playing as Mia (Hathaway) welcomed the children of her country to join in during the parade. Watch the video above, there won’t be a dry eye in the house.
