"In third grade, Powter found out that he was dyslexic. He had difficulty reading, and was picked on by students at school and singled out by administrators. As he got older, he realized that the difficulty extended to reading sheet music. He told a People interviewer that this turned out to be "more of a blessing. I couldn't read what others wrote, so the only way I could do music was to create my own." He told Gavin Martin in the London Mirror, "I learned to play by ear, and music became an escape." Powter's mother frequently took him to the symphony, which he found boring; but she also took him to rock shows that came to Vancouver, and he loved those.

Powter went to music college, but dropped out because of his inability to read music."

Powter's first single, "Bad Day" was first released in Europe in 2005, where it became a hit. In the US, it received extensive airplay in the 5th season of American Idol, where it hit Billboard's Top 100. Powter was the first solo Canadian male artist to hit #1 since Bryan Adams in 1995.

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