William Hung

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

William Hung
William Hung performing at Haas Pavilion before a volleyball game
Background information
Born	January 13, 1983 (age 24)
Origin	Los Angeles, California
Genre(s)	Pop
Occupation(s)	Civil engineering college student
Years active	2004–present
Label(s)	Koch
Website	williamhung.net

William Hung (Traditional Chinese: 孔慶翔, Simplified Chinese: 孔庆翔, Cantonese Yale: Hung2 Hing3 Cheung4, Pinyin: Kǒng Qìngxiáng) (born January 13, 1983) is a Chinese American college student and musician 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 and graduated from the John H. Francis Polytechnic High School in Los Angeles. He enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley in 2001, majoring in civil engineering. He eventually dropped out from UC Berkeley for his recording career and was denied re-admittance. He chose to go to Pasadena City College, then transfer to a university, which would likely be UC Berkeley.

1 Initial fame
2 Cult following
3 Record deal
4 Television, commercials and movies
5 Perpetuating racial stereotypes
6 Trivia
7 Discography
8 See also
9 Notes
10 External links and sources

[edit] Initial fame

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 American Idol in San Francisco during September 2003 after winning a talent contest at his dormitory. The President of the Hall Association, Manuel Buenrostro, and the Publicity Director at the Clark Kerr dormitory, 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 was the final audition on the January 27, 2004 installment, 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.

[edit] Cult following

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

Hung rapidly gained a cult following. 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 Jimmy Kimmel, 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, Arrested Development 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.

[edit] Record deal

Hung was offered a record deal from Koch Entertainment and a surprise $25,000 check from the Fuse music channel on February 18 after reprising his rendition of "She Bangs" at a volleyball game at University of California, Berkeley. 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.

[edit] Television, commercials and movies

Hung has appeared in commercials for the search engine Ask.com, as well as the 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. The character 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 veteran Hong Kong actress Nancy Sit and parodied his own American Idol performance with the song Siu Beng (Cantonese)/Shao Bing (Mandarin) (Chinese Pancake), a deliberate allusion to the title of his American Idol audition song, She Bangs. Although with Nancy Sit and huge investments, this movie was a flop and regarded by many Hong Kong people as the worst movie ever made.

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".

He has also made a cameo appearance on "The George Lopez Show".

Hung has appeared in an episode of the TV Show, "Celebrity Deathmatch", where he battles Ricky Martin.

More recently however, William can be seen in commercials for Hollywood Tan, a popular chain of tanning salons. He incorporates several references of his infamous American Idol auditon including the exact same style of dress and his own special dance move which instead of being used during the lyric "She Bangs, She Bangs" is used during the tweaked lyric "She Tans, She Tans."

[edit] Perpetuating racial stereotypes

Few Asian Americans, especially men, have had successful recording careers. It has been conjectured that Hung may have not gained so much attention had he been of another race, and his popularity may in be rooted in his being a walking stereotype of an image often criticized in movies such as in the movie Sixteen Candles. These stereotypes include being a nerd, studious, speaking with a strong Chinese accent, and notably lacking in singing talent. Documentary filmmaker James Hou commented that "(a)s Asian Americans, we look through this racial lens, and we see this guy who embodies all the stereotypes we're trying to escape from."^[1] Some have also argued that Hung's career arose out of others making a mockery of him, and that the media exploited him as a joke, rather than as a talented or inspirational figure.[1]. Ron Lin, former editor in chief of the UC Berkely's Daily Californian notes that "(i)t's really difficult for Asian American males to break through and (Hung) may not be the most appealing example."^[2]

On the counterpoint, there is a lack of portrayals, negative or positive, of Asian males (particularly Asian-American males) in the U.S. media. William Hung has served as a focal point for minority groups. [2] [3] Ironically for a person said to harm the image of Asian Americans, Hung is one of the most easily-recognizable Asian American artist by Americans of all ages and races. Pat Suzuki's cultural icon I Enjoy Being a Girl is often quoted in popular culture, but is not usually associated with an Asian American artist. Yul Kwon, the winner of Survivor: Cook Islands, is the only other Asian American male to have received similar attention in reality show media.

[edit] Trivia

William Hung was in an episode of Airline when he arrived in Los Angeles.
William Hung appeared and performed on the Fox Box.
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.
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. [4]
While he was in Castroville, California, William performed his infamous version of "She Bangs." He also performed his own version of "Surfin' USA."
A William Hung dancing game is a reward for users who finish the survival horror game "Uninvited" on Albinoblacksheep.
William's name came up in an episode of The Office: when character Todd Packer's license plate on his red Corvette was revealed to be WLHUNG (alluding to his private area's size, "well hung"), he is asked "Are you a big William Hung fan?" to which he responds "Why does everyone always ask me that? Who the hell is that?"
The situation with Hung's fame is spoofed in the episode "Disregarding Henry" of the show My Gym Partner's a Monkey.
Impersonated by Jimmy Fallon on Saturday Night Live.
In The Fairly OddParents television movie "Fairy Idol" (A spoof of American Idol), a fairy resembling Hung can be seen auditioning.
William Hung is an avid player of the Pokémon Trading Card Game, and is a journalist for Pokémon TCG fansite pojo.com.[5]
William Hung is often the target of jokes made by Pablo Ridson Francisco, a popular American standup comedian. In one of his performances he makes fun of Hung's Christmas album and also impersonates William Hung and Joe Cocker, singing a duet.
William Hung stands 5 foot 2 inches tall.[6]