Earl "EJay" Day Jr. (born September 13, 1981) is an American singer and songwriter, who placed tenth during the first season of American Idol. Originally not chosen to advance into the voting rounds, Day was brought back to replace another contestant who had lied about his age. After being voted through the semi-finals into the top ten, Day became the first finalist in American Idol history to be eliminated from the competition. 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.
Day went on to participate in the 2002 American Idols LIVE! tour and throughout the following year made several appearances at charity events. He toured again in 2003, as part of a promotional campaign called Coca-Cola's Behind the Scenes With American Idol – a tour in which various American Idol finalists performed in select shopping malls throughout the country. A recording of Day singing Edwin McCain's "I'll Be" is included on American Idol: Greatest Moments. This compilation album of all the first season finalists was released in 2002 and reached No. 4 on the Billboard 200 chart.
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. The song, "Calling All Angels", was written for and released through the charity organization Give Kids the World. Day and Gil first performed this song in Pasadena, California's New Year's Day Rose Parade. Later that year, Day released his own single, "Come Into My World", which attained limited airplay in Atlanta, Georgia. A full album of the same title was set to be released around 2006, but has never been made available.
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. Day has also been cast in several stage productions over the years. His social media accounts contain several original songs that have never been commercially released.
Early life and career beginnings
Earl Day Jr., known professionally as EJay Day, originally hails from Lawrenceville, Georgia. The youngest of four children, Day took to singing in church at an early age. He would later credit this experience with helping to develop his vocal abilities, saying that it taught him how to "sing parts and harmonies". The same year, he shared songwriting credit for the track "Pure Love" on Raven-Symoné's album Undeniable. At the time of his American Idol audition, Day was employed as a singer and dancer at Six Flags Over Georgia. He also found work singing on a cruise liner and was cast in multiple musicals. singing "Get Here" by Oleta Adams. He was twenty years old at the time. and it was discovered that Cagnolatti, then twenty-nine, had lied in an attempt to escape the cut-off.