Bronx-born R&B artist Bright Day has spent much of his life refusing to let circumstances determine what comes next. Now, after growing up legally blind in one eye, enduring years of violence at home and navigating the complicated path from childhood dreams to adulthood, he is introducing himself to a wider audience with his new single, “Brand New”. The upcoming artist’s talent has already attracted the backing of DJ DonDada formerly of VH1s Black Ink Crew and a major entertainment PR firm Hobson PR.
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The feel-good R&B track, available now on streaming and digital platforms, was inspired by something surprisingly ordinary: a fresh pair of sneakers.
Bright Day, whose given name is Eric Bright, says he noticed a pair of kicks that caught his attention and began thinking about the feeling associated with something new, clean and untouched. Then another thought occurred to him: Could that same idea describe a woman?
That moment became “Brand New.”
The upbeat banger about attraction and fresh beginnings stands in striking contrast to the experiences that shaped the man behind it.
Bright Day grew up legally blind in one eye, but he was determined not to let his vision become an explanation for what he could or could not accomplish. Even while playing basketball, he kept his condition largely to himself.
“Blind in one eye was my little secret,” Bright Day says. “I never wanted to make excuses. Just played on.”
But his childhood presented challenges far beyond his eyesight.
Bright Day says his father was a functioning alcoholic whose drinking was frequently accompanied by anger and violence. As the middle child, he felt different from his siblings and describes himself as more active and rebellious, spending part of his youth caught between the streets and the future he imagined for himself.
He says that combination often made him the target of his father’s drunken beatings.
“Me being the middle child and much different than the other siblings, more active, halfway in the streets, halfway out, always in trouble, I got the brunt of the drunken beatings,” he recalls. “Some senseless, some made sense. Either way, for me it was hell on Earth living in the same home with my dad.”
The conflict extended beyond the household.
“Unfathomable, constant anger, always fighting,” he says. “Whether inside the house or outside the house, whether outside on the streets or inside my mind, constant war.”
Yet even amid that turmoil, Bright Day found something that gave him another direction.
Music.
At 10, he began discovering what songs could do to an audience. He started writing music before he had fully recognized his own potential as a vocalist. By 18, he had management and had made a decision that would stay with him for decades: music was going to be more than a childhood aspiration.
It would become his life’s pursuit.
His musical influences include Michael Jackson, Bobby Brown, Stevie Wonder, George Michael and Phil Collins, but Bright Day is not attempting to recreate the music of another era. His goal is to bring those influences into contemporary R&B, combining melody, romance and the emotional experiences that have shaped his perspective.
Even his stage name carries a message.
Bright Day is a play on his given name, Eric Bright, but it also reflects the philosophy he has developed through adversity.
“The dark nights are part of what make a bright day mean something,” he says.
That philosophy now extends to a new chapter in his career.
Bright Day being backed now by DJ Don Dada and has caught the attention of veteran entertainment publicist Lynn Hobson of Hobson PR, whose career has included publicity work involving names such as Dipset, Mike Tyson, Gucci Mane, Rasheeda and Sister Souljah.
Hobson says, however, that the appeal goes beyond the music.
“Bright Day represents the type of artist whose story is just as important as the music,” Hobson says. “He has experienced life, he has faced challenges and he is still choosing to pursue something that has been in his heart since he was a child.”
In many ways, the new single represents the opposite of the environment in which he grew up.
It is about looking forward.
And Bright Day has no shortage of plans for what comes next.
He is a self-published author. His book, Eyes Wide Open, is a romance built around a superhero-inspired concept. He is developing a documentary connected to his music and hopes eventually to expand into short-form narrative filmmaking. His next single “Love Will Reign” is already on the way.
Then there are the larger ambitions.
Bright Day hopes to collaborate with Mariah Carey, work with producer Mark Ronson and ultimately perform at Yankee Stadium.
Those goals may sound ambitious, but for an artist who has spent decades refusing to surrender his original dream, ambition is hardly new territory.
He has already spent a lifetime proving that obstacles do not necessarily get the final word.
Now, with “Brand New,” Bright Day is offering listeners something different: not a song about surviving the past, but music that points toward hope and a future filled with possibility.
“Brand New” is available on major streaming and digital music platforms. Follow Bright Day on Instagram at @TheRealBrightDay.
Article by Jazmyn Summers. You can hear Jazmyn every morning on “Jazmyn in the Morning “on Sirius XM Channel 362 Grown Folk Jamz. Subscribe to Jazmyn Summers’ YouTube. Follow her on Facebook and Instagram.
