Eva Avila (born Eva Gougeon-Ávila) was born in Ottawa, Ontario on February 25, 1987. She is a Canadian singer from Gatineau, Quebec and was crowned the winner of the 2006 season of Canadian Idol, the fourth installment of the show.

Eva is the second ever female winner of the show, (Melissa O’Neil being the first.) Eva auditioned for the competition in Ottawa. Her father initiated her to music and she has been singing in public since the age of 2. At the age of 9 she was a winner on Homegrown Cafe, a talent show on CJOH-TV, in Ottawa.

Prior to appearing on Canadian Idol, Eva worked as a postal clerk and a beauty consultant. She is also a former winner of the Jeune Diva du Quebec contest. Eva is fluent in French, English and Spanish. Her nickname, given by her family when she was a small child, is Eva le dragon (English: Eva the dragon).

On September 16, 2006, the day prior to the public announcement of the Idol results, Sony BMG Music Entertainment offered Avila’s version of the first single, Meant to Fly, for sale on the website. The page was subsequently blanked, the artwork for the single can currently be located within the image files of the webpage. This occurrence led to many rumours regarding the winner of the competition.

During the finale show, Judge Zack Werner said that Avila was the show’s most obvious candidate for international stardom, but he thought Craig Sharpe would win the competition.

While winning the 2006 crown, the vote separating her and runner-up Craig Sharpe was only 131,000 votes or 3% of the total votes.

Hours after her victory, Eva signed with the Sony BMG record label and released her first single “Meant to Fly”, which debuted at number one on the Canadian singles chart, a position it held for a huge nine weeks. The single was eventually certified double platinum. On October 5, 2006, the CTV television network reported that Eva has signed a modeling contract with Ford Model. Avila started the 2006 NHL season on October 4 when she performed the Canadian national anthem at the Toronto Maple Leafs vs. Ottawa Senators game. She performed the anthem again before another Battle of Ontario game at the Scotiabank Place on October 26 following an autograph session on the same afternoon at Gatineau’s Les Galeries de Hull shopping centre.

Eva’s debut album, Somewhere Else, was released on November 14, 2006. and debuted at number 6 on the Canadian albums chart, selling 16,000 copies in its first week. The second single from the album, “I Owe It All To You”,peaked at number nine. On November 19, 2006, Eva performed the national anthem at the 94th Grey Cup game in Winnipeg. Eva and her Canadian Idol predecessor, Melissa O’Neil, were both nominated for the 2007 Juno Award for Best New Artist, but Tomi Swick won the award. The third and final single from Eva’s album, “Fallin’ For You” was released in April 2007 and peaked at number thirty-five.

On March 26, 2007, eTalk confirmed that Eva would be the new face of Maybelline New York, making her the first Canadian to be a face for the brand. Also in 2007, she participated on the Hip Hop compilation “Les 40 Voleurs” with La Dynastie on the song “La Fausse Raison”. Eva also recorded the song: “Canada (You’re a Lifetime Journey)”, the finale tune to the film “O Canada!” which is shown at the Canadian pavilion in Epcot in Orlando Florida.

Following the success of her debut album, Eva returned to the recording studio in Toronto to begin work on her sophomore album. On August 9, 2008, she announced on Canada’s eTalk that the first single to be taken from her second album would be called “Give Me The Music”, composed by Matrax Production and written by Frankie Storm, Tee Marie a.k.a Tanya Miller of (Tha Kopi Writz) and Shaun Johnson and would be released on September 2,with the album of the same name following on October 28. She also stated that the record label, Sony BMG Canada were hoping to make the record her first American release. If the album was released and well received in America, Avila stated that she hoped to extend the album’s supportive tour into the U.S. When released in Canada on October 28, Eva’s sophomore album Give Me the Music hit the national albums chart at number 63, a surprisingly low debut considering the lead single had peaked at number 21 on the Canadian Hot 100. “Damned”, the second single from the album debuted on the Hot 100 in January 2009 and peaked at number 83. In late March 2009, Avila was the support act for the four Canadian dates of Beyonce Knowles’ I Am… Tour.