Powter grew up in Vernon, in the Okanagan-Shuswap region of British Columbia, alongside 2 brothers and a sister.

He changed to piano at 16 years old after a group of children bullied him in the schoolyard,[2] trashed and destroyed his violin.

Powter moved to Vancouver at the age of 22 and met producer Jeff Dawson in 1997, releasing his debut studio album, I'm Your Betty, on June 21, 2000.

[4] The album, limited to a very small print, contains ten songs, two of which—"More Than I" and "Negative Fashion"—were both featured on the television show Higher Ground in the episode "Wherefore Art Thou".

Warner Bros. Records submitted the single for commercials, and it was subsequently chosen by Coca-Cola as the theme song for an ad campaign in Europe.

In the United States, "Bad Day" was used extensively on the television series American Idol in its fifth season.

"[7] 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.

[8] At the 2007 Grammy Awards, Powter received a Best Male Pop Vocal Performance nomination for the song.

The subsequent singles from Daniel Powter – "Jimmy Gets High", "Free Loop", and "Lie to Me" – were released in different parts of the world, each failing to match the success of "Bad Day".

A new track called "Love You Lately" was released as the next U.S. single, preceding a re-release of the album Daniel Powter that was also cancelled.

In that same year, he released his greatest hits album, Best of Me, and with it, recorded three new songs and a new version of the title track to go along with 'Bad Day', 'Jimmy Gets High', 'Next Plane Home' and his other singles.

On December 1, 2010, Powter made a tribute to English singer and songwriter John Lennon with his cover version of Happy Xmas (War Is Over).

On June 5, 2013, Powter announced on Twitter that he was working on a new album with Jeff Dawson, who co-produced most of his songs in the past, and John Fields, who was a co-writer on "Crazy All My Life".

On September 5, 2013, Powter later released 4 new songs as bonus tracks for his album Turn on the Lights called Ur My Radio, Doesn't Matter, Cheers To Us and Goodbye.

On January 6, 2017, Powter released a new single called "Delicious" featuring Australian singer Vanessa Amorosi.

[26] Powter went on to feature with The Untamed Boys, a Chinese pop group, in January 2020, where they released the song "Just Isn't Me.

[29] On February 3, 2021, Powter was featured in a song called "Save Your Life" with Japanese pop singer Ayaka Hirahara.

[37] Musician Agent Zed worked on an electronic dance rendition of Bad Day with Powter, releasing a music video on April 22, 2023.

[40] In 2024, with the rationale that despite having had a major hit single he had never actually had an opportunity to perform on Canadian television, he auditioned for the fourth season of Canada's Got Talent.

Powter disclosed in July 2013 that he was sexually abused by a female babysitter for three years starting from age 7 and turned to drugs and alcohol to get over his guilt and shame.

[45]When Powter is not making music, he enjoys spending time with his children, and his hobbies include fly fishing,[46] yoga,[47] surfing[48] and reading Raymond Carver short stories.

You know it's still old band music inspired by Elton John's old stuff, you know The Beatles and Fleetwood Mac and David Bowie and the things that my parents gave me when I was a kid.