William Hung

This article is about the American entertainer. For the painter, see William Hung (artist).

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William Hung on American Idol

William Hung (Traditional Chinese: 孔慶翔, Simplified Chinese: 孔庆翔, Cantonese Yale: Hung2 Hing3 Cheung4, Pinyin: Kǒng Qìngxiáng) (born January 13, 1983 in Hong Kong, China) is a Chinese American college student and American entertainer who gained fame and notoriety in early 2004 as a result of his poorly received audition performance of Ricky Martin's hit song "She Bangs" on the third season of the television series American Idol.

Originally from Sha Tin, Hong Kong, Hung moved to Southern California, United States in 1993. He enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley, in 2001.

Initial fame

William Hung performing as Haas Pavillion before a volleyball game

While a civil engineering student at University of California, Berkeley, Hung was inspired to audition for the third season of the reality talent search program in San Francisco during September 2003 after winning a talent contest at his dormitory. The President of the Hall Association (soon to be ASUC President Manuel Buenrostro) and the Publicity Director at the Clark Kerr dormitory (student government campaign director Cameron Huey) invited Hung to sing during meetings and events, including an end-of-semester auction. American Idol producers never told him that his audition would be broadcast, and he only found out about it when it aired four months later. His audition was the final one on the January 27, 2004 installation, the coup de grâce of an hour-long episode that showcased other would-be pop stars, mostly lacking in talent.

"Um, I really like music. It is very good. I want to make music my living." This was Hung's statement before he started singing Ricky Martin's "She Bangs!". As judges Randy Jackson and Paula Abdul tried to hold back their laughter, judge Simon Cowell dismissed Hung's performance outright: "You can't sing, you can't dance, so what do you want me to say?" Hung defended himself, stating, "Um, I already gave my best, and I have no regrets at all." Jackson and Abdul applauded his positive response, and Abdul said, "That's the best attitude yet." Hung's response to Cowell's criticism was in stark contrast to earlier contestants' often angry, confrontational rejoinders. Hung also remarked, "And you know, I have no professional training of singing and dancing," eliciting a response of mock surprise from Simon Cowell, saying, "No, well this is the surprise of the century." Hung was not admitted to the next round.

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This picture is featured on a magnet and is one of the many Hung products available today.

Cult following

Hung rapidly gained a cult following around the world. A William Hung fan site set up by Realtor Don Chin and his wife Laura, recorded over four million hits within its first week. Hung subsequently appeared as a guest on a number of television programs including On Air with Ryan Seacrest, Entertainment Tonight, The Late Show With David Letterman, Countdown with Keith Olbermann, The Howard Stern Radio Show, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Dateline NBC, and CBS's The Early Show. He was also featured in numerous magazines and newspapers nationwide and parodied on Saturday Night Live and Celebrity Deathmatch. He was reportedly invited to perform at the MTV Asia Awards held in mid-February. Remixes of his performance topped song request lists at a few radio stations. An online petition to get Hung back on the show claimed more than 100,000 signatures by late February.

Hung was brought back to American Idol as part of a mid-season special titled Uncut, Uncensored and Untalented, which aired March 1, 2004. The special documented what it was like to go through the audition process and, in Hung's case, emerge as an inadvertent celebrity. There is a degree of irony in the situation, as Hung has become more prominent in the public eye and modern culture than most other previous American Idol contestants. His unconventional looks, good attitude, and eagerness gained him many fans.

Record deal

At a February 18 volleyball game at University of California, Berkeley, Hung again performed his rendition of "She Bangs", and was offered a surprise $25,000 check from the Fuse music channel and a record deal from Koch Entertainment. On March 8, Koch Entertainment announced that Hung had decided to sign the record deal he was offered in February. Hung's first single, a cover of The Village People's "YMCA," debuted on March 19. Hung's debut album, Inspiration, recorded over the weekend of March 6, was released on April 6 and includes covers of Ricky Martin's "She Bangs" and "Shake Your Bon Bon" and Elton John's "Rocket Man," as well as a 40-minute DVD documenting the making of the album called A Day in the Life of William Hung. The album has sold 195,000 copies.

To promote his album, Hung performed before nearly 20,000 fans during half-time at a Golden State Warriors game on April 6. Several of his songs reached the top 10 on Apple's iTunes charts, and his album reached #3 on Amazon.com's sales rankings. With the release of his album, Fuse also aired a half-hour special called Idol Worship: The William Hung Story, featuring Hung in his first music video, another rendition of "She Bangs".

Hung released a Christmas album, Hung for the Holidays, on October 19 2004.

Hung's third album, Miracle: Happy Summer from William Hung, was released July 12 2005 and sold poorly.

Television, commercials and movies

William Hung, Arrested Development

Hung appeared in commercials for the search engine Ask.com and mobile phone service provider Cingular Wireless.

His first movie, a HK$10 million (US$2 million) Hong Kong period comedy called My Crazy Mother (2004), was released in January 2005. Hung played a good-natured village kid who sells Chinese pancakes to pay his mother's medical bills and gets discovered as a singer and helps a woman protect her business from her jealous and scheming older sister. In this film Hung played opposite to veteran Hong Kong actress Nancy Sit and parodied his own American Idol performance with the song Siu Beng (Cantonese)/Shao Biang(Mandarin) (Chinese Pancake), obviously a deliberate allusion to the title of his American Idol audition song, She Bangs.

Hung was also the subject of a documentary called William Hung: Hangin' with Hung, an hour and a half long film documenting Hung's sudden rise in fame.

In February 2006, Hung played himself in an episode of the television series Arrested Development, as part of the fictional band "William Hung and his Hung Jury", the house band of the show "Mock Trial with J. Reinhold".

Controversy

Some feel that Hung is being used to perpetuate historical American racist stereotypes of Chinese and Asians in general, and point out that Hung would probably not have gained so much attention had he been of another race. Others feel that the American public's interest for him is entirely innocent and independent of his race, and that he should capitalize on his fame as much as he can. Some have speculated that his unabashed innocence, honesty and work ethic may have promoted his popularity; others have noted the lack of positive portrayals of Asian males (particularly Asian-American males) in the U.S. media, and claim William Hung to have been a focal point for minority groups.[1] [2] Additionally, many feel that his career arose out of others making a mockery of him, and that the media exploited him as a joke, rather than as a talent or inspirational figure.[3] Rumors circulated around the Internet in mid-2004 that Hung had died of a heroin overdose. Started by a satirical article on Broken Newz written by Bill Doty and Joe the Peacock, the rumor spread far enough that a Singaporean newspaper, The Straits Times, printed an article confirming that he was not dead and would fulfill his tour schedule in that country. [4]

Trivia

• William Hung appeared on the last day of the fourth season where he acted in the show's parody of Simon Cowell's affair and offered to do the investigation.
• In his free time, Hung is a fan of the anime Pokémon, and is an avid player and online strategy writer for the trading card game based on the series.
• William Hung has placed surprisingly well in the aforementioned game, making the Top 32 at the 2005 Pokémon Trading Card Game World Championship with a "Sharpedo" deck.
• William Hung was in an episode of Airline when he arrived in Los Angeles.
• On April 6, 2004 William Hung sang during halftime at the Houston Rockets/Golden State Warriors NBA game at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas. He gave his rendition of Elton John's "Rocket Man" but instead of saying "man" he localized the song by singing "Rocket fan" and got a rousing ovation. He even announced shortly that he was a fan of the Rockets, and states his favorite player is Yao Ming, who is Chinese.
• William Hung was voted sexiest Asian singer alive by the CMA, or Chinese Music Association, with an article printed in CMA's official magazine on April 6 2006.
• From an episode of The Fairly Odd Parents, Fairy Idol, the character Wiry is an allusion to William Hung.
• William Hung was crowned the Artichoke King in Castroville, California on May 21, 2006. The town is labeled as the "artichoke capital of the world." Marilyn Monroe was the first Artichoke Queen, crowned in 1947. [5]
• While he was in Castroville, California, William performed his infamous version of "She Bangs." He also performed his own version of "Surfin' USA." After the second song his performance was over, but the crowd made him get back up on stage and he performed "Achy Breaky Heart."
• A William Hung dancing game is a "reward" for users who finish survival horror game "Uninvited" on Albinoblacksheep.

Discography

• Inspiration (Koch), 2004
• Hung for the Holidays (Koch), 2004
• My Crazy Mother Original Soundtrack (WSM), 2005
• Miracle: Happy Summer from William Hung (Koch), 2005

See also

• Florence Foster Jenkins
• Hirai Ken
• Mrs. Miller
• William Shatner's musical career
• Shi Hengxia
• Tatsuro Abe
• Wing
• Yoko Ono

External links and sources

• williamhung.net, includes video and audio clip of Hung's performance
• Original Audition, on Google Video
• William Hung at IMDb
• Daily Californian article
• SF Chronicle article
• William Hung on CultIdols.com
• William Hung, American Sambo
• William Hung: Racism, or Magic?
• William Hung Interactive Flash Animation
• William Hung on MySpace