Bad Day by Daniel Powter Topped the Billboard Hot 100 for Five Straight Weeks

The American Idol exit theme "Bad Day" by Daniel Powter, topped the Billboard Hot 100 for five straight weeks. Powter also performed the hit song on the shows season finale on May 23, 2006. Although American Idol boosted Bad Day's popularity, Powter admits to never watching the show. He says that someday he may return the favor and watch it.

Daniel Powter is a Canadian singer and songwriter who was born on February 21, 1976. He grew up in Vernon, in the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia. He credits his early exposure to music to his mother who was a pianist. She would take Powter on long distance trips to see artists such as Prince perform.

Bad Day was Daniel Powter's first piano pop single. Powter wrote Bad Day after the melody came into his head and he couldn't get it out. After the melody remained in his head for two weeks, he wrote the song. The lyrics loosely refer to Powter's days as a struggling musician, but no one day inspired him. It debuted in Europe in mid-2005. The song was chosen by the Warner Brothers as the theme song for an ad campaign in Europe. Bad Day achieved heavy airplay in most European countries. It made it as high as number three on the overall European airplay chart.

Although Bad Day did quite well in Europe, it did best in Germany. It peaked number one in the National airplay. It also peaked number one on the single chart in Italy in the Summer of 2005 and it was also featured on a commercial. In Australia Bad Day peaked at number three and in Canada it reached the top five and is now in the top ten at Adult Top 40 Radio. In the United Kingdom Bad Day peaked at number two in the single chart and stayed in the top ten for thirteen weeks. In the United States the hit song peaked as a number one single on the Billboard Hot 100 for seven weeks after it's release. It is currently ranked number five in the United States.

Bad Day came in fifth place in the British Record of the year 2005. Daniel Powter and his first hit single Bad Day also beat out Sean Paul's Temperature on Billboard.com. Bad Day was featured during the 2006 NBA Playoffs and it was used in the 2006 MTV Movie Awards skit and also made an appearance in it.