Nonetheless as he recovered from his accident last year Daniel's talent was recognised by the industry when he landed a gong for Best Male at the Brits. Not that he was too bowled over.
"Awards don't mean crap," he says. "A lot of crap people win awards and a lot of good people don't win awards. Craig David was nominated for five Brits but never got one.
"What is important to me is people going, 'Wow this song changed my life,' or 'We played this song at our wedding,' or 'We danced to this song in prison'.
"That's the kind of thing I like to hear. I don't care what the industry says about me. The reviews for this album were great but it didn't sell as much as the first one."
During Daniel's enforced absence from music, another Bedingfield dominated the charts - younger sister Natasha.
She even beat him to the top of the album charts. Just don't try to suggest there's any jealousy.
"I'm very proud of her. We don't have any rivalry," says Daniel.. "We're family and she's a girl. If I had a brother it might have been different, we'd have loads of rivalry - it would be, 'Ah, I sold more albums than you. Yeah but I sold more singles than you'."
Born in New Zealand, Daniel and Natasha along with younger sister Nicola grew up close-knit musical family in Brixton, where their parents were both social workers and creativity as well as charitable actions were encouraged.
It is something which has endured in both artists. As a teenager, Daniel worked with street children in South America and is a committed Christian and both he and Natasha performed at this week's Scottish Live 8 gig at Murrayfield.
Hugely confident, Daniel has never been afraid of saying openly that he has Attention Deficit Disorder, or ADD as it is more commonly known.
A number of other high profile individuals have been rumoured to be affected including Albert Einstein and, usually associated with young children, it is characterised by bouts of "naughtiness" and an inability to concentrate for long.
