Malaysian stop: Lavigne performing in Kuala Lumpur.
Compiled by C. ARUNO, TARRENCE TAN and R. ARAVINTHAN
POP punk princess Avril Lavigne is rumoured to be taking part in the next season of Chinese reality TV series Sisters Who Make Waves.
According to Sin Chew Daily, the show – which has been credited with reviving the careers of singers such as Cyndi Wang, Rainie Yang and Twins – was said to have signed the Canadian superstar for the upcoming season.
“Mango TV has confirmed the news. As Avril is planning to tour China this year, she will take part in Season Four of Sisters Who Make Waves to generate the hype needed (for her tour to succeed),” a viral post read.
The rumour quickly became a trending topic, with some pointing out that Lavigne appears to have set her sights on China as she performed at the Bilibili New Year’s Eve Gala just over a month ago.
“Whether it is a rumour or not, Avril remains an icon of our era,” a netizen wrote.
Her first album Let Go (2002), is reportedly the best-selling album of the 21st century by a Canadian artiste.
She is considered a pivotal figure in the development of pop punk music and was credited with paving the way for female-driven, punk-influenced pop music in the early 2000s.
> The daily also reported that the parents of Chinese actress Fan Bingbing has halted her plan to get married.
It said a source close to the matter claimed that Fan’s parents did not approve of her new beau Guo Yanfeng, an ex-military personnel and now serves as a vice-president of a prominent financial group.
Fan, who is still largely blacklisted in the film industry following her tax evasion scandal in 2018, met Guo through work but it was uncertain how their relationship blossomed.
They were recently spotted cuddling together while Fan was on a work trip in Shandong province.
According to the source, Guo is unable to get along with Fan’s family members.
The parents believed that Fan, 40, who was once ranked first on the list of 50 Most Beautiful People in China, could do with a much better suitor than Guo.
The source added that they wanted Fan to freeze her eggs and discuss about marriage at a later date.
It was earlier reported that Fan found it hard to continue her career in the entertainment industry after being slapped with a 880 million yuan (RM540mil) fine for tax evasion in 2018, which was touted as one of China’s “biggest tax evasion penalties in history”.
The above articles are compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with a >, it denotes a separate news item.
