The third full-length studio album from Avril Lavigne will be released Tuesday, April 17. The album is titled The Best Damn Thing. The first album of new music from the pop-punk icon since 2004's triple-platinum Under My Skin, The Best Damn Thing includes Avril's current hit power-ballad, "Keep Holding On," which she cowrote (with Dr. Luke), at the request of 20th Century Fox, for the studio's fantasy/adventure film, "Eragon."

The album's first single, the defiantly rocking "Girlfriend," is cowritten by Avril and Dr. Luke and produced by Dr.Luke. It is slated to impact US radio on Monday, March 5. A video for "Girlfriend" is scheduled for its worldwide premiere on Monday, February 26.

Brimming with confidence, The Best Damn Thing -- with its fresh energy, punk-rock riffs, indelible melodies and soaring choruses, celebrations of empowerment and sheer lust for life -- showcases Avril's growth as a songwriter and maturity as a performer on a bold new album she calls "hand's down," the best she's ever made.

The Best Damn Thing finds its power and pulse in up-tempo pop-punk anthems like "I Can Do Better," "The Best Damn Thing," and "Girlfriend" while Avril reaches intense emotional peaks on three new ballads: "When You're Gone," "Innocence," and "Keep Holding On." Helping Avril out with production on The Best Damn Thing are Dr. Luke (Kelly Clarkson, Pink), Rob Cavallo (Green Day, My Chemical Romance), Butch Walker (Under My Skin), and her husband, Deryck Whibley from Sum 41.

Avril's debut album, Let Go, was released in 2002, and earned eight Grammy nominations, struck RIAA platinum six times, took home four Juno Awards (including Album of the Year and New Artist of the Year) and sold more than 16 million copies around the world driven in part by its string of anthemic youth-culture-defining hit singles: "Complicated," "Sk8ter Boi," "I'm With You." Her moody introspective follow-up, Under My Skin, entered the U.S., Canadian, and UK charts at #1 in 2004, reaching triple platinum in the states while kicking out smash singles like "Don't Tell Me," "My Happy Ending," and "Nobody's Home."

- Avril Lavigne pictures