



However, she ended up moving back east to South Carolina after a year, where she started writing songs. Ava Max moved to Los Angeles, California, at 14 to try to make it in the music industry. Her first performance featured a cover of “I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)” by Whitney Houston. She performed her first show at just ten years old. She participated in multiple singing competitions in the Norfolk and Chesapeake area, as well as in Florida. Getting Into Music When Ava was eight years old, her family relocated to Hampton Roads, Virginia, where she first started getting involved in music. Some of Max’s childhood musical influences were Alicia Keys, Celine Dion, Gwen Stefani, Norah Jones, Britney Spears, Fergie, and others. The woman helped them get into the United States by providing them with passports. They emigrated from Europe to Wisconsin with the help of a woman they met in Paris who was from the state. Ava’s parents left Albania during a tumultuous time in the country’s history. Her parents are both skilled musicians – her mother is an opera singer, and her father is a pianist. Raised by her Albanian parents, Paul and Andrea, she is the youngest of two children – she has one older brother. Ava Max’s Early Life Born Amanda Koci, Ava Max grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
