Arguably the most infamous moment of any Idol singing show was when William Hung rocked up to American Idol and did a hilariously awful cover of ‘She Bangs’.
But despite missing every note and drawing the scorn of every judge on the panel, audiences were charmed by Hung’s positive attitude amidst all the criticism from Simon Cowell and he quickly became immortalised as the ‘She Bangs’ guy.
And now some 17 years after his infamous American Idol audition (and a weird-as-hell Christmas album) later, William Hung is still perfectly cool being known as the ‘She Bangs’ guy until the end of time.
Chatting to Variety on the eve of the 20th anniversary of ‘She Bangs’, Hung says he’s “grateful to have that” song as he “wouldn’t be where [he is] today” without it.
When asked why he chose ‘She Bangs’ as his song of choice, apparently it’s because he “won the talent show in school singing that same song” and that gave him the confidence to audition. Yeah I know, I’m scratching my head too.
That being said, Hung says he “didn’t expect anything” to come out of his American Idol audition, which was why he was able to say “I already gave my best, and I have no regrets at all” and genuinely mean it despite the judges tearing him to shreds.
Despite his celebrity as a pop musician (of sorts), Hung decided to become a motivational speaker instead as he felt he could make a bigger impact that way than through entertainment.
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Even today, Hung is still remembered as the ‘She Bangs’ guy but he’s perfectly cool with it and embraces it as “part of [his] identity” now, so much so that his Twitter handle is @SheBangsGuy.
Sometimes in life, you can’t change the past. You don’t have control over the past, but what you can do is make the most out of your situation,” says Hung.
But perhaps the most important tidbit of all was whether he met Ricky Martin after his American Idol experience – and it turns out that he has!
Hung says he got to perform with Martin in 2018 and the singer told him, “Thank you, and it was great meeting you.”
Now that alone is worth being known as the ‘She Bangs’ guy for the rest of your life.
Check out William Hung’s infamous performance of ‘She Bangs’ on American Idol:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0d5eP0wWLQY&ab_channel=DonChin
