“˜American Idol’ reject idolized on
Web
BERKELEY “”mdash; The “American Idol” judges said
William Hung bombed with his
you’ve-got-to-see-it-to-believe-it rendition of Ricky
Martin’s “She Bangs.”
But rejection turned out to have a silver ““ maybe even
platinum ““ lining. In the weeks since the rejection,
21-year-old Hung has become an insta-Net celebrity, sought after by
talk shows, record producers and Idol dreamers everywhere.
By now, unless your TV set is permanently tuned to PBS,
you’ve probably seen Hung in action ““ arms waving over
his head, hips following the beat of an entirely different drummer
as he cheerfully attacks Martin’s song.
The song fights back; the song wins. And yet the mild-mannered
civil engineering student is undeniably charming, his reedy tenor
bringing a boyish exuberance to the sexy lyrics.
What has people so hung up on Hung?
Is it the shy, toothy smile? The accent? The dance moves, just a
few funks short of funkadelic?
His fans say it’s all that, combined with his fearless
““ or clueless, if you ask caustic “Idol” judge
Simon Cowell ““ pursuit of an unlikely dream.
“He’s not full of himself. He’s just
down-to-earth,” says Andrea Michaelian, a San Francisco-area
teenager who, with a friend, created
www.williamhung.reallyrules.com. “He’s like an
unintentional celebrity, so it’s cool.”
Hung, who was born in Hong Kong but moved to Southern California
with his family as a child, has always been interested in music.
But he was concentrating on a steadier line of work, studying at UC
Berkeley, until he won a dorm talent contest singing, of course,
“She Bangs.”
Last September, he decided to try out for “American
Idol” in San Francisco, appearing before judges Cowell, Paula
Abdul and Randy Jackson.
It didn’t go well. Cowell stopped him with a curt,
“You can’t sing, you can’t dance, so what do you
want me to say?”
Some contestants argue when they get the Cowell cutoff; others
cry. Said Hung, “I already gave my best, and I have no
regrets at all.”
The judges were disarmed but not swayed by his cheerful
sincerity. Producers put the segment on the air as an example of
how not to be.
Hung ended up evoking more support than schadenfreude.
“Everyone’s having fun with it,” said Jared
Levy, a fellow UC Berkeley student. “It’s completely
different from everyone else’s auditions who didn’t
make it. He said, “˜You know what? That’s
OK.'”
Levy, a Cal volleyball player, was so impressed by Hung that he
invited the 21-year-old to sing at a game this week, drawing a
crowd of hundreds.
“Will! Will! Will!” they screamed as Hung launched
into “She Bangs” with the backing of a sextet of nubile
young dancers calling themselves The Movement. (A key move turned
out to be avoiding getting walked into by Hung.) The crowd went
wild.
Fame has made it hard for him to walk around campus without
someone recognizing him. Some yell out a cheerful “She
bangs!” He admits to struggling with his studies.
Still, Hung is determined to graduate as planned and is still
calling music his hobby. The music channel Fuse and New York-based
record company Koch Entertainment offered him a record contract and
music video production deal; the offer, made just after
Hung’s volleyball singing gig, drew a polite smile but no
immediate acceptance.
He’s grateful for fan support and the thousands of people
who have signed online petitions trying to get American Idol to
invite Hung back. Reportedly, the show wants him for the
“loser” special, “Uncut, Uncensored and
Untalented.” Hung was noncommittal about that
possibility.
Hung seems to suspect some people are laughing at him, not with
him, but he’s not letting that get him down. He’s
taking singing lessons and says every time he sings “She
Bangs,” “there’s always something to work on,
something to improve.”
Reports from Bruin wire services.