1. William Hing Cheung Hung is a Hong Kong-born American motivational speaker and former singer who gained fame in 2004 as a result of his unsuccessful audition singing Ricky Martin's hit song "She Bangs" on the third season of the television series American Idol.
At the time of his audition, Hung was a civil engineering student at UC Berkeley.
William Hung's recording career was marked by negative critical reaction.
William Hung brought his own career as a musician to an end when in 2011 he accepted a job opportunity as a technical crime analyst for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, and decided to pursue law enforcement.
Since then, William Hung has reflected positively on his pop music career.
William Hung was a civil engineering student at University of California, Berkeley, when he competed on the US television contest series American Idol.
William Hung exited college to pursue his music career and later graduated from California State University, Northridge with a degree in mathematics.
In 2022, William Hung admitted that his gambling addiction had contributed towards his divorce and that he was taking steps to eradicate it from his life.
William Hung was featured in several national magazines and newspapers; he was parodied on Saturday Night Live, Mad TV, Celebrity Deathmatch, and The Fairly OddParents.
William Hung was brought back to American Idol as part of a mid-season special titled Uncut, Uncensored and Untalented, airing March 1,2004.
The special documented what it was like to experience the audition process and, in William Hung's case, emerge as an inadvertent celebrity.
At the 2006 Artichoke Festival in Castroville, California, William Hung was crowned the Artichoke King; Marilyn Monroe had previously received a similar honor.
William Hung was offered a $25,000 advance on a record deal from Koch Entertainment in 2004, and released three albums on that label in 2004 and 2005.
William Hung appeared to sing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" in May 2004 at the Rogers Centre for the Toronto Blue Jays.
William Hung played a good-natured village kid who sells Chinese pancakes to pay his mother's medical bills.
William Hung's character gets discovered as a singer, and helps a woman protect her business from her jealous, conniving elder sister.
William Hung remains optimistic about his new career path, and states he does not regret that his music career has ended.
William Hung later joined the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health around 2014.
In 2017, William Hung became a motivational speaker; he has been booked as a keynote speaker for groups such as the Asian Realtors Association of America.
On May 2,2022, William Hung made another surprise appearance on American Idol season 20.
Some analysts have argued that William Hung's career arose out of mockery, and that the media exploited him as a joke rather than as a talented or inspirational figure.
Amber Eliza Watts suggested that William Hung's cult following derived from him being the antithesis of everything Idol represented, with his lack of musical talent and odd looks, and how unlike other audition failures he was not arrogantly expecting to be made a pop star, he just wanted to sing.