2004–08: Making the Band 3 and Danity Kane O'Day was discovered in 2004 on the
MTV reality show Making the Band 3, founded by Sean "Diddy" Combs, and emerged as the show's breakout star. O'Day was eventually chosen to be in the group, and was the first member included. The band became known as Danity Kane, and their first album debuted on August 22, 2006, at #1 on the
Billboard 200 charts. The group was the opening act for
Christina Aguilera on the
U.S. leg of her
Back to Basics Tour with the
Pussycat Dolls. O'Day's fame and physical features found appealing by magazines helped her broaden her career beyond the group. In addition to other musical projects, she posed for several "sexy" magazine spreads. He told O'Day that she no longer looked like the girl he signed and that she used to be one of the best. In the live section of the episode, Combs explained that the reason he let O'Day go was that she was not the same person he signed, that the fame had changed her. When O'Day came on to reply, she stated: "I would rather be hated every damn day of my life for being real than loved for being something I'm not." The 2009 season of
Making the Band was expected to include new members auditioning as "replacements" for O'Day and Woods in Danity Kane, but instead showed the official end of the group. The complete breakup of the group was originally thought to be the result of O'Day and Woods, along with group member
Shannon Bex, declining the offer to return to the series and the group. She said that she has forgiven being released from the group, and people who blamed her for the group's demise. She appeared in the 2009 comedy
American High School costarring
Nikki Ziering, O'Day's debut single, the
Adonis-produced "Automatic" was released on April 12, 2011 & has sold 50,000 copies to date hitting the top 20 on iTunes pop charts in less than 2 hours. O'Day recorded over 50 songs for her debut album on SRC/Universal Motown, which was supposed to come out in late 2012. O'Day was also fired from NBC's
The Celebrity Apprentice 5, which premiered on February 19, 2012. Before being fired, O'Day received a significant amount of criticism for her conduct while competing on the show, being described as "narcissistic, self-centered, evil, and vicious" by the media and viewers of the show, and as "transparent" by Trump's judges. It eventually caused
Arsenio Hall to lash out on her in the show's boardroom segment, berating her with the unanimous support of his team, particularly
Clay Aiken. This left O'Day in tears and contemplating quitting the show before eventually being fired by Trump. O'Day ultimately decided not to quit, but was fired shortly thereafter. Although she accepted an apology from Hall, she has expressed her dislike of him in multiple confessionals, labeling him and Aiken as "bullies". However, the contestants praised her creativity and business skills, and she ended up finishing in 3rd place, being the last female contestant standing. The reason for her firing was that she was too young and inexperienced, and also was seen as transparent by
John Rich and
Marlee Matlin, who served as Trump's viceroys. On April 23, 2012, a new self-released single "Wrecking Ball", co-written and co-produced by
American Idol alumni
Pia Toscano was released on iTunes and sold 3,000 downloads in the first week. She shot a video for the track with music director Rage in June 2012 and was released on September 26, 2012, on Vevo.
2012–present: Between Two Evils, Danity Kane reunion, and Dumblonde In 2012, O'Day announced she would be recording her debut solo EP. On December 31, 2012, she performed previously released material, as well as three new songs from her EP
Between Two Evils, "Love Me When You Leave", "Let Me Lay" and "Before I Drown" in
Las Vegas. In June 2013, O'Day performed her singles "Automatic" and "Before I Drown" on
The CW's
Oh Sit! and also performed at Chicago's Pride Fest. "Between Two Evils" was released on iTunes on August 13, 2013, after topping the iTunes US Dance Chart on pre-order sales alone, and reaching #5 on the iTunes US Pop Chart. In mid-2013, there were rumors that Danity Kane would be reuniting. On August 25, 2013, Danity Kane appeared at the
2013 MTV Video Music Awards (without D. Woods, who did not return to the group), announcing they were back together. They soon split again, and O'Day and
Shannon Bex announced the release of the band's third and final album, "
DK3". In early 2015, choosing to continue making music together, O'Day and Bex announced their duo music project,
Dumblonde with the same manager as the Danity Kane band,
Johnny Wright. In August 2016, she returned to reality television by taking part in the
eighteenth series of the British show
Celebrity Big Brother, where she sailed straight through to the finals, after never facing the public vote and finished in fifth place. On July 7, 2021, O'Day released a single, "Body Love High". ==Other work==