Daniel Powter

Daniel Powter

Daniel Robert Powter (born February 25 1971) 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 directed him into music as a child.

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, 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 reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 seven weeks after it was released, and also rocketed to number one on the Adult Top 40 and Adult Contemporary charts. It made Powter the first solo Canadian male artist to top the Hot 100 since Bryan Adams in 1995 (with "Have You Ever Really Loved A Woman?"). In Australia, it peaked at number three. The song also reached number 1 in Powter's homeland of Canada. It was fifth place in the British Record of the Year 2005.

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.

He is currently nominated at the 2006 Billboard Music Awards for Hot 100 single of the year for his hit "Bad Day".

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, an artist cannot have a version of the previous single on the 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. In the US, "Free Loop" was the album's second single but failed to make the Hot 100 and barely broke the Adult Contemporary Top 30; during the brief chart tenure of "Free Loop", "Bad Day" was still sitting at #2 AC behind Natasha Bedingfield's "Unwritten." "Love You Lately" will be the third 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.

"Daniel Powter is Gay", Powter's fifth album, recieved heavy criticism from many fans. However, Powter felt it was time for a change in scenery, evidenced by the pink lipstick and green eyeliner worn during all the videos.

Trivia

• When asked in an interview why he always wears his trademark tuque (beanie) hat, Powter explained that 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" was featured on the fifth season of American Idol, played whenever a contestant was eliminated.

• "Bad Day" is now well known as arena music in sporting events; it is played whenever a team loses, gets eliminated from a playoff series or game, or something bad happens during the game (e.g. star player gets injured). Examples of sporting events where it has been used include the 2006 FIFA World Cup, 2006 MLB season, 2006 NBA Playoffs, and 2006 Stanley Cup Playoffs. At baseball stadiums, it's also used to mock opposing pitchers who have been taken out of games due to poor performance.

• 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 sketch 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 who works as a teacher at a junior high school in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

Discography

• 
  Daniel Powter

Studio albums

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

Singles

Year	Single	Album	US	US Pop	US AC	US HAC	UK	IRL	CAN	AUS	NZ	FRA	GER	ITA	SUI	BEL	AUT	NL	SE	NOR
2005	"Bad Day"	Daniel Powter	#1	#1	#1	#1	2	#1	#1	3	7	3	17	#1	5	5	13	6	8	7
2005	"Free Loop"	Daniel Powter	DNC	-	30	-	-	20	11	43	32	52	55	-	38	-	62	-	-	-
2006	"Jimmy Gets High"	Daniel Powter	-	-	-	-	-	-	53	-	-	-	-	18	41	46	-	33	58	-
2006	"Lie To Me"	Daniel Powter	-	-	-	-	91	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2006	"Love You Lately"	Daniel Powter (re-release)	-	-	-	39	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

External links

• Official site