Daniel Robert Powter (born February 21, 1976 is a Canadian recording artist. He grew up in Vernon, in the Okanagan Valley region of British Columbia. With few local musical influences, he credits his early exposure to music to his mother, who was a pianist and took her son on long distance trips to see artists like Prince perform in Vancouver.

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 top five 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. Daniel Powter and his first hit single Bad Day beat Sean Paul's Temperature on Billboard.com about a month later Chamillionaire and Krayzie Bone's Ridin' took his #1 spot.

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.

Daniels next singles varied worldwide with 'Jimmy Gets High' 'Free Loop' and 'Lie To Me' all being released in different places however so far they have failed to match the enormous success of 'Bad Day' In The UK 'Free Loop' was the follow up single to 'Bad Day' however his record company embarrasingly failed to release that this was chart inelligable due to 'Free Loop' being an A side on 'Bad Day' which at the time was still in The UK top 40. So the next UK Single which was chart elligable was 'Lie To Me' Sadly for Powter this was a huge flop which completely missed the top 75 and charted at 91 due to distribution problems and lack of promotion due to extensive promotion of 'Bad Day' over in the states. Powters next UK singles are due to be released in this order 'Hollywood' 'Jimmy Gets High' 'Song 6' The release of 'Song 6' will be the last UK released single from his debut album 'DP'.

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 as a young child 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, and during the 2006 NBA 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 and also made a appearance in it.

• 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.

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

• Daniel Powter's fans website
• Daniel Powter official site
• Daniel Powter Yahoo Launch music player
• Daniel Powter MySpace