daniel powter

Early success

Daniel Powter's first piano pop single, "Bad Day" debuted not in his home country of Canada, but rather in Europe in mid-2005. It was chosen by Warner Brothers as a submission for commercial production and was subsequently chosen by Coca-Cola as the theme song for an ad campaign in Europe. Additionally, "Bad Day" was used extensively by American Idol in its fifth season. Powter sang the song live at the end of the penultimate show of that season on May 23, 2006. The song achieved heavy airplay in most European countries, and made it as high as number three on the overall European airplay chart. It did best in Germany, where it peaked at number one in national airplay, Ireland where it peaked at #1 on the Singles Chart^[1], in Italy, where it peaked at #1 in the summer of 2005 and has been recently featured on a commercial and in the UK, where it peaked at number two in the singles chart and stayed in the top 10 for 13 weeks. In the United States the song peaked at number 1 single on the Billboard Hot 100 seven weeks after it was released and is currently ranked number 16. In Australia, it peaked at number three. The song reached number 1 in Canada and is now a top 10 hit at Adult Top 40 radio. It was fifth place in the British Record of the Year 2005. "Bad Day" also beat Sean Paul's "Temperature" on Billboard.com before Chamillionaire and Krayzie Bone's "Ridin'" took the #1 spot about a month later.

On July 2, 2005, Powter performed at the Berlin installment of Live 8, a simultaneous group of concerts in nine countries intended to raise awareness of poverty in Africa and put pressure on world leaders for aid.

On April 1, 2006, he was named the best new artist at the Canadian Juno Awards.

The video for "Bad Day" features actress Samaire Armstrong, best known for her role as Anna on the popular American television show The O.C. with Jason Adelman.

Daniel Powter has a music publishing deal with BMG Music Publishing for France.

Powter was also nominated for Breakthrough Act at the BRIT Awards 2006, but failed to win that award.

Follow-up singles

Powter's next singles varied worldwide with "Jimmy Gets High", "Free Loop", and "Lie To Me" all being released in different parts of the world. So far, however, they have failed to match the enormous success of "Bad Day".

In the UK, "Free Loop" was released as the follow-up single to "Bad Day". However, Warner Bros. Records' international distributor, WEA failed to realize that "Free Loop" was chart inelligible due to a live version of "Bad Day" being featured as a B-side on the single. "Bad Day" was still in the UK top 40 and due to UK chart rules, you cannot have a version of your previous single on your latest one if the previous is still charting. Consequently, the next UK single which was chart eligible was "Lie To Me", which was an abysmal flop, completely missing the top 75. "Lie To Me" eventually charted at #91 in the UK because of distribution problems and lack of promotion due to extensive promotion of "Bad Day" in the US.

"Jimmy Gets High" will be the fourth single from the album in the UK, with an expected release set for October 2006. "Love You Lately" will be the second single from the album in the US, with a radio impact date in October and a re-release of Daniel's self-titled album in November.

Trivia

• When asked in an interview as to why he always wears his trademark tuque (beanie) hat, Powter explained how he was hit by a car when he was 22 and was subsequently left with a large scar on his head. He wears a hat to cover the scar, and remarked that he has over 40 similar tuques in his wardrobe.

• Powter's hit Bad Day has been featured on the fifth season of American Idol, whenever a contestant is eliminated.

• Bad Day is now a well-known arena music in sporting events whenever the team loses, gets eliminated from a playoff series or game, or something bad happens during the game, it is played. Examples of sporting events on where it has been used are the 2006 FIFA World Cup, 2006 MLB season, 2006 NBA Playoffs, and 2006 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

• Daniel Powter is dyslexic, in an article in People Magazine he said that instead of seeing "the dogs were barking" he saw "the bogs were darking" and that piano notes looked like dots to him.

• Bad Day was used in the 2006 MTV Movie Awards skit

• The Daily Show parodied American Idol's use of Bad Day in a bit about Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's death. The song was played over clips of the terrorist, much like American Idol's montages of eliminated contestants.

• The Canadian singer/songwriter's label announced that "Bad Day" has become the best-selling digital single in the U.S. to date, with nearly 1.7 million downloads

• Internet Sketch Comedy show Moron Life parodied Powter's "Bad Day" in their musical number Overplayed.

• Daniel Powter has a brother named Matthew Powter who works as a teacher in a school in Calgary,Alberta, Canada

Discography

Studio albums

Daniel Powter (2005) #4 JAP, #5 (2 weeks) UK, #9 US, #14 AUS

Singles

References

1. ^ Bad Day peaks at #1 on ISC on 18 August 2005

External links

• Official site