Prior to appearing on the Fox reality series, Day helped write the song "Pure Love" for Raven-Symoné's album Undeniable and placed in the top 20 on Popstars: USA.

Although Day has never released a full album, he collaborated with his fellow American Idol first season finalist AJ Gil on a single in 2003.

Leading up to and then following his run on American Idol, Day has had a career performing on cruise ships – most notably ones operated by Royal Caribbean and Holland America.

[1][3][4][5] The youngest of four children,[2] his parents, Earl Sr. and Gilda, were employed by Corporate Environments at the time of Day's American Idol appearance.

[2] He signed with a talent agency known as Hot Shot Kids/Teens in Atlanta, which also represented Tamyra Gray and Diana DeGarmo, two other local artists who would also go on to become American Idol finalists.

[1][2][8] Although initially cut from the competition prior to the voting rounds, he advanced into the semi-finals, after another contestant, Delano Cagnolatti, was disqualified.

[8][12][18][19] "I had 45 minutes to pack for the flight, I had to practice on the plane singing the song in my head and then the airline lost my luggage...Vocally, I was happy with my performance, but I thought my face looked frozen."

[11][13][19] Although he was once again praised by all three judges (and even called best of the night up to that point by Randy Jackson),[11][b] Day received the lowest number of votes that week and became the first finalist ever eliminated from American Idol.

[27] Dave Wedge of The Boston Herald also singled out "I'll Be" as a highlight on the album, writing that Day "show[s] personality along with some polish".

[28] Wedge considered Day's track superior to those included on the album of that season's runner-up contestant, Justin Guarini.

Ranking the sixteen most notable Georgians to ever appear on American Idol, Rodney Ho of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution placed Day in the twelfth spot.

[20] In a 2013 retrospective feature by PopCrush, Cristin Maher wrote that Day displayed "sweet" and "smooth" vocals while on the series.

[19] Boston Herald writer Amy Amatangelo gained the impression that Day should have gone on further in the competition, after seeing his group medley performance in the first-season finale.

[6][19] Paired with eighth place finalist AJ Gil on a float for Give Kids the World,[41][42] the two sang "Calling All Angels",[41] a song which had been specifically written for the charity organization.

[42] Day and Gil would subsequently perform "Calling All Angels" at an Orlando, Florida fundraising gala in June[43][44] and release this duet as a single through Give Kids the World.

[42][51] Throughout the Spring, Day participated in Coca-Cola's Behind the Scenes With American Idol promotional tour, in which he and a selection of other finalists from the first two seasons of the series performed in shopping malls owned by the Simon Property Group.

[59][60] In November, Day performed along with Edwin McCain and American Idol second season finalist Vanessa Olivarez in a tree lighting ceremony at the World of Coca-Cola.

[5] It has been suggested by PopCrush, that Day may have continued performing for Muhammad Ali,[19] extending his purported pre-Idol history with the iconic boxer.

[4] The American Idol: Greatest Moments album, released October 1, 2002, features a recorded version of Day singing Edwin McCain's "I'll Be".

[3][67] Following his elimination from the series, Day elaborated to Billboard that his dream would be to collaborate with The Neptunes on music similar to that of Britney Spears.

In the description, Day called this the first song on which he understood the "meaning [of] songwriting" and noted that it was inspired by a relationship in which he and the other person had to part ways, in spite of their strong feelings for one another.