Heejun Han (born Han Hee-Jun; Hangul: "???; April 20, 1989) is a South Korean singer from Flushing, Queens, New York, who finished in ninth place on the eleventh season of American Idol.

Early life

Han was born on April 20, 1989, to Jae Chun and Sun Ae Han of Anyang, Gyeonggi, South Korea. He and his family migrated to Flushing, New York, when he was 12 years old. He attended Francis Lewis High School.

Before he auditioned for American Idol, he was a non-profit organizer from Milal Mission in New York, a faith-based non-profit in Flushing, working with children with special needs. He has spoken of suffering from emotional depression and credited the children that he worked with for helping him to recover from his illness. He has also said that the children motivated him to audition for American Idol.

Music career

2012: American Idol, post-Idol and future projects

Han auditioned for the eleventh season of American Idol in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with a performance of Michael Bolton's version of the song, "How Am I Supposed to Live Without You". His audition brought Jennifer Lopez to tears, and Steven Tyler stated "I think you are really great. I think you could be an American Idol". He received a golden ticket and advanced to Hollywood, Los Angeles, California.

Han performed the same song, "How Am I Supposed to Live Without You", for his first solo performance in Hollywood and was put through to the next round. He then formed a group with Phillip Phillips, Richie Law and Jairon Jackson for the Hollywood group performance, under the name, "M.I.T." ("Most International Team"). The group had issues during the preparation of their performance, as Law insisted that the performance would "do it in his own way" and refused to accept the suggestions given by the other group members. They performed "Broken Strings" by James Morrison featuring Nelly Furtado and despite the judges not being satisfied with their performance, they were put through to the next round as the judges believed they deserved a second chance. Han was put through to the next round once again after his second solo performance in Hollywood.

Han went to Las Vegas and performed "I Only Have Eyes for You" by composer Harry Warren and lyricist Al Dubin, with Phillip Phillips, Neco Starr and Jairon Jackson. He was put through to the final Las Vegas round as one of the Top 42 contestants. During the final Las Vegas performance, he performed "New York State of Mind" by Billy Joel and was put through to the semi-final as one of the Top 25 contestants of the season.

During the semi-finals, he performed "Angels" by Robbie Williams and was one of the five highest male vote getters in the semi-final round to advance to the Top 13 thus becoming the first ever male contestant of East Asian descent to do so. He is the first Korean American to make the finals of American Idol. Previously Paul Kim (season 6) and John Park (season 9) had become semifinalists.

During the Top 13 week, he performed "All in Love Is Fair" by Stevie Wonder. His performance received generally positive feedback from the judges, with Randy Jackson stated "It wasn't perfect, but it was really good". During the Top 11 week, the remaining contestants had to perform songs that were released during their birth year. Han chose the song "Right Here Waiting" by Richard Marx. Jackson stated that it was not a great performance for him, but Lopez rebutted and said that she loved the performance by the end of it though she commented about his vocal issues. Being one of the Top 10 contestants of the season, he will perform in a summer concert tour after the season of the competition has ended. During the Top 10 week, he performed "My Life" by Billy Joel. The performance was not well received by the judges, with Lopez and Jackson mentioning that the performance was entertaining, despite the vocal issues. Han landed in the Bottom 3 for that week and was declared safe after Erika Van Pelt was eliminated. During the Top 9 week, he performed Leon Russell's song, "A Song for You". He received a standing ovation from all the judges after the performance and Lopez commented "That was the most beautiful tone and the most beautiful vibrato" and Jackson added "Finally the Heejun we selected came back to us tonight". However, it was announced during the results show on the following night that Han received the lowest number of votes and the judges did not use their save on him and he was eliminated in ninth place. It was later revealed that Lopez wanted to use the save on him but she was unable to do so as the decision was not unanimous among the three judges.

Performances/results

Episode	Theme	Song choice	Original artist	Order #	Result
Audition		"How Am I Supposed to Live Without You"	Laura Branigan	N/A	Advanced
	First Solo	"How Am I Supposed to Live Without You"	Laura Branigan	N/A	Advanced
Hollywood Round, Part 2	Group Performance	"Broken Strings"		N/A	Advanced
Hollywood Round, Part 3	Second Solo	Not aired		N/A	Advanced
Las Vegas Round	Songs from the 1950s Group Performance	"I Only Have Eyes for You"	Dick Powell & Ruby Keeler	N/A	Advanced
Final Judgment	Final Solo	"New York State of Mind"	Billy Joel	N/A	Advanced
Top 25 (13 Men)	Personal Choice	"Angels"	Robbie Williams	11	Advanced
Top 13	Stevie Wonder	"All in Love Is Fair"	Stevie Wonder	9	Safe
Top 11		"Right Here Waiting"	Richard Marx	3	Safe
Top 10	Billy Joel	"My Life"	Billy Joel	8	Bottom 3
Top 9	Their Personal Idols	Solo A Song for You	Leon Russell	4	Eliminated
		Trio The Lady in My Life / Rock with You / P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing) with DeAndre Brackensick & Joshua Ledet	Michael Jackson	8

• ^ When Ryan Seacrest announced the results for this particular night, Han was among the Bottom 3 but declared safe second, as Erika Van Pelt was eliminated.

Post-Idol

After Han was voted off, he later went on to be on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Live! with Kelly and The Wendy Williams Show for interviews and performances with others voted off. He later went on to sing "God Bless America" and opened for the New York Mets. Han took part in the American Idols LIVE! Tour 2012, which began July 6, 2012 and ran till September 21, 2012. He appeared as a judge in a K-Pop competition at the New York University's Skirball Center for the Performing Arts in September 2012.

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