Avril Lavigne announces 1st tour since Lyme disease diagnosis
15-date North American tour includes 1 Canadian stop in Toronto
Avril Lavigne is pushing ahead with plans for her first tour in five years.
The Napanee, Ont., singer-songwriter announced a 15-date North American tour, which includes a single Canadian stop.
Lavigne, who was diagnosed with Lyme disease in 2014, will start the run of dates in Seattle on Sept. 14.
She will reach Toronto's Sony Centre for the Performing Arts on Oct. 6. Other stops include Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and Boston.
The tour will support of her latest project Head Above Water, a deeply personal album released earlier this year.
Lavigne says she wrote all of the songs sitting in her bed or on the couch while the effects of Lyme disease made her body feel like it was shutting down.
"I felt like I was drowning. Like I was going under water and I just needed to come up for air," she said last year in a statement.
"Like I was in a river being pulled in a current. Unable to breathe."
She's called her new album "a victorious moment."
Concert promoter Live Nation says a dollar from each ticket will go towards the Avril Lavigne Foundation, which supports treatment and research for people with Lyme disease, serious illnesses or disabilities.
Tickets for the general public go on sale this Friday.