One-hit wonders are something to behold. Sometimes, when a song blows up out of nowhere, it can lead to a fruitful career for an artist. Other times, however, it can be a flash in the pan, with the accompanying success never to be seen again.
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The latter was certainly true for the artists featured on this list. Keep reading to see where the artists behind three unforgettable one-hit wonders are today.
Daniel Powter
When Daniel Powter’s “Bad Day” debuted in the early aughts, it was an unmitigated success.
“I had this melody which was stuck in my head – it wouldn’t go away. I would just sing it over and over again,” Powter told Songwriter Universe in 2006. “Then I came up with the chord progression. In the chorus, I sang the words ‘Bad Day’ and it just seemed to fit. Then we recorded it. At the time, I couldn’t imagine that it would be a hit. I was just trying to make music.”
The track spent five weeks at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart and was even nominated for a GRAMMY Award.
Since then, though, Powter failed to replicate that success. “Bad Day” appeared on his self-titled sophomore album. In the years that followed the album’s release, between 2007 and 2021, Powter put out three more LPs, three compilation albums, and three EPs, none of which performed well.
He also consistently released singles over the years, most recently “Brave” in 2021 and a stripped-down version of “Bad Day” in 2024.
Powter rarely posts on Instagram, though he occasionally shares information about shows he’s playing and clips of interviews he’s done. In 2024, he made a surprise appearance on Canada’s Got Talent, where he performed his one-hit wonder. Later that year, the dad of three celebrated 19 years of sobriety.
La Roux
Elly Jackson and Ben Langmaid of La Roux put out “Bulletproof,” their duo’s only hit, in 2009.
“We started it, and it felt really good,” Jackson told The Independent of writing “Bulletproof” in 2010. “We had a great verse, and then we did about five choruses. The lyric went ‘This time I’ll be… ‘ and there was too much of a gap.”
“We’d both been sitting there in silence for ages trying to work it out,” she continued. “Suddenly, we both looked up and went ‘This time, baby’ and thought, ‘Yes, let’s get it down.’ I do remember that when we wrote that, we thought ‘Call the manager, we’ve got the one.’”
Indeed they did. The song debuted at No. 1 on the UK Singles Chart and peaked at No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100. It nabbed the last spot on Rolling Stones‘ list of the 25 best songs of the year. The self-titled album on which the song appeared even won the Grammy Award for Best Dance/Electronic Album.
Langmaid left the duo in 2012, but Jackson went on to release two albums as La Roux: Trouble in Paradise in 2014 and Supervision in 2020. In 2025, Jackson hosted a month-long residency in Los Angeles. Around the same time, Jackson revealed that she has a new album on the way, though she’s yet to reveal details about the project.
As for how she feels about the one-hit wonder classification, in March 2025, Jackson told Forbes, “There was a lot of tension and a lot of people that were like, ‘Why don’t you just write another ‘Bulletproof’?’ Which my answer is always, ‘If I could write ‘Bulletproof’ every day, trust me, I would. My bank account would love it, but it doesn’t work like that.’ Art isn’t about that.”
Magic
“Rude,” the debut single from Canadian band Magic, was a runaway hit in 2014. It remained in the top spot of the Billboard Hot 100 for six weeks.
The band, which was comprised of singer Nasri Atweh, guitarist Mark Pellizzer, bassist Ben Spivak and drummer Alex Tanas, didn’t see their success didn’t last long, though.
In an interview with Billboard that year, guitarist Pellizzer eerily predicted that the success of “Rude” could wind up being “a curse.”
“‘Rude’ has achieved so much international success that it’s a blessing and — I’m not going to say a curse,” he said. “But the success of that record could eclipse some things that are possibly going to follow.”
In the wake of the song’s success, Magic opened for Maroon 5 on tour and won two Juno Awards. They put out two more albums—Primary Colors and Expectations—before Tanas departed the group in 2022.
The band is still active today. They frequently play shows and even released their fourth LP, Inner Love Energy, in April 2024.
Photo by JIL Studio/FilmMagic
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