Avril Lavigne Feat. Nicki Minaj: Dumb Blonde

Yesterday, the music world was given the collaboration it didn’t know it needed: Former pop-punk princess Avril Lavigne (yes, she’s back, y’all!) partnered with the queen of spits Nicki Minaj on “Dumb Blonde,” a featherbrained, upbeat single that sends you straight back to the early 2000s. The lyrics go a little something like this: “I ain’t no dumb blonde, I ain’t no stupid Barbie doll, I got my game on, watch me, watch me, watch me prove you wrong.” After a full listen of the fun single, I allowed the auto-amalgamated playlist on my Spotify to play on, and what followed was a flood of like-minded sugary pop hits: The Pussycat Dolls’ “When I Grow Up,” Gwen Stefani’s “Hollaback Girl,” and Fergie’s “Fergalicious,” for starters. Musical masterpieces, really.



Avril and Nicki’s link-up got people talking because it’s an unlikely duo, sure—“I used drive to my job at Red Lobster playing this woman’s album for an hour straight everyday for months,” Minaj tweeted of Lavigne (who knew!)—but much of what makes their up-tempo track so buzzy and appealing is that it’s so pleasantly brainless. It’s cheesy pop at its finest! And in this era of overwrought musical messaging and suicidal-sounding SoundCloud rap, I’m inclined to think that “cheesy” is exactly what pop music needs. Hear me out: In these terrifying sociopolitical times—when our own president is so gob-smackingly idiotic that he thinks global warming doesn’t exist, for instance—a happy-go-lucky tune is that perfect distraction for one’s morning commute. The earth may be imploding, but rather than become paralyzed by worry, why not let that perfectly packaged verse-chorus-bridge add just the slightest pep to your step to get you out the door?

Despite two divorces, the pop-rock princess hasn’t given up on the institution of marriage.
“I believe in love,” the singer says in the new issue of PEOPLE, adding she would “of course” get married again — but, “I don’t really care so much about that; I just care about being in a healthy relationship and just being happy.” And she is happy. On much of her new album Head Above Water (out now), the Grammy-nominated star sings of finding love after heartache.



On standout “Goddess,” she proclaims: “I was lost till you found me … You’re what I was hoping for, all I dreamed of and more.” Elsewhere, on “Love Me Insane,” Lavigne sings: “You picked up all the pieces and put ’em back again / You stitch and sew my heart up all by hand / I know a good thing when I see one / You know I didn’t see this comin’.”



As for the identity of her latest muse, for nearly a year Lavigne has been spotted with new boyfriend Phillip Sarofim, 33, the son of a Texas billionaire.