- Was born the day after his father got his green card at 12:15 a.m.
- He is 90% deaf in one ear.
- Was born with severe allergies to trees, grass and pollen.
- His favorite reality show, other than Idol, is The Amazing Race.
- Him, Danny Gokey, and Casey James are the only male contestants to finish third on American Idol.
- As a child, he suffered from allergies to grass and pollen. Yamin is 90% deaf in his right ear, which he mentioned in the third round of the semi-finals.
- When he was eleven years old, he moved to Richmond, Virginia.
- At the age of seventeen, Yamin was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes and has to wear an insulin pump.
- He began singing at the age of five and he has had no formal vocal training.
- Made the top 3 on "American Idol: The Search for a Super Star"
- At the American Idol finale, sang "A House Is Not a Home" in the Burt Bacharach medley and U2's "One" with Mary J. Blige.
- Favorite film: Coming to America (which featured choreography by Paula Abdul)
- Like winner Taylor Hicks, originally planned to audition in Memphis but couldn't due to Hurricane Katrina. Instead, drove to Boston for 11 1/2 hours and was the second to last person heard by the judges.
- When the Top 24 was revealed, Pinnaclesports.com gave his chances of winning at last with 65-1, tying him with 8 other contenders. When it was down to 8, Entertainment Weekly gave him 12-1 odds of winning ahead of only Bucky and Ace. When it was down to three, the magazine gave him 6-1 odds.
- His mother Claudette began singing at 12 doing blues and standards in hotels, clubs and steakhouses with orchestra leader Ray McKinley.
- Would most love to duet and write an original song with Stevie Wonder.
- The first album he bought with his own money: Whitney Houston's self-titled debut.
- His audition number for the judges in Boston was 19991.
- On AmericanIdol.com's Top 20 highest-rated performances of season 5, Elliott got the most with 9. Behind him was Taylor with 7.
- As of May 30, an AOL poll placed Elliott 5th on the "Best Idol of All Time" list. Taylor Hicks tied for 3rd while Katharine McPhee tied for 6th.
- When it was down to 5, a poll at MSNBC.com asked who should win American Idol. Elliott had the most with 30% while Katharine came in second with 28%.
- For the July 29th stop of the American Idol tour in his hometown of Richmond, Virginia, 9,000 tickets sold out in under 15 minutes, besting the tour led 3 years prior by Ruben, Clay and Kimberley. That averages out to 10 tickets per second.
- Used to turn out the lights to sing in front of friends.
- Played basketball with Anthony Fedorov, last year's 3rd runner-up, on Easter Sunday 2006.
- Results from an online poll at PBSKids.org tabulated 50,110 votes as of June 19th, 2006 asking who should have won American Idol. Chris Daughtry came in 1st, but Elliott was next by a difference 2%.
- Results from another online poll at AOL put Elliott at #1 for person that should've won American Idol in this year at 40%. Katharine was next with 37%.
- Fans of Elliott Yamin are known as Yaminions, the E-Train, FOEs (Friends of Elliott), Yamin Fiends and/or the Yamin Machine!
- The July 2006 issue of Richmond Magazine, which featured Elliott wearing a shirt with the number 3 on it, sold 144,000 copies in 4 days. Normally, the magazine sells 31,000 copies in a monthly period.
- His version of "Moody's Mood for Love" is #73 on Billboard's US Pop Chart, #76 on US Digital, #53 on iTunes' Top 100 Songs and #1 on Billboard's Bubbling Under Hot 100 as of early July 2006
- Sang background on three tracks for Big Planz's gospel rap CD Sound Doctrine in 2004. Once word got out in 2006 that Elliott sang back up, Big's site got 7000 hits in 3 days and in 24 hours, its sales-ranking on Amazon.com went from 505000 to 1300.
- Occasionally sat in with a jazz/funk band called Big Pat & Legion in Richmond.
- Fronted a reggae outfit known as the Razor Posse at the Bob Marley Festival in Richmond's Chimborazo Park singing "Waiting In Vain".
- 20,459 people were at the American Airlines Center in Dallas when Elliott sang the National Anthem for game 2 of the NBA finals on June 11, 2006, which is exactly the day American Idol premiered on Fox in 2002.
- Held 43 different jobs before auditioning for American Idol, including 6 years at Foot Locker, collections, customer service, retail, landscaping, vinyl-siding installation, part-time deejay for Power 92 and counter clerk at Westbury Pharmacy.
- His mentor's grandmother passed away the night he made the Top 12.
- At the age of 5, Elliott would walk outside his family home in Pasadena carrying a boombox blasting the sounds of Itzhak Perlman.
- Earned his GED in 1997 at the Virginia Randolph Education Center while working at Foot Locker.
- Spent about 15 hours, from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., waiting to audition for Randy, Paula and Simon in Boston.
- Was one of the nearly 19,000 people who auditioned in Boston for the fifth season of American Idol.
- His free dental makeover in Beverly Hills took 20 hours and would normally cost $20,000.
- The song he sang to win $1,000 for Richmond Idol was Brian McKnight's "One Last Cry".
- His debut CD was written and produced with Stargate (Beyonce, Ne-Yo, Rihanna), Josh Abraham (Pink, Linkin Park, 30 Seconds to Mars), DJ Lethal (Limp Bizkit, Evanescence, LP), Michael Mangini (Joss Stone, Baha Men, David Byrne) and Derek Bramble (David Bowie, Vanessa Williams, Lalah Hathaway).
- The song "Movin On" was previewed on AOL's First Listen Program, which landed it on AOL Music's home page throughout Grammy weekend. Hundreds of thousands of visitors listened, many of whom posted rave reviews.
- Video for "Wait For You" placed number #19 on VH1's Top 40 Videos of 2007.
- Has a Shih Tzu named Buster.
- Sometimes wishes he sung "Ribbon In the Sky" instead of "Knocks Me Off My Feet" during Stevie Wonder week. He has admitted to not doing the song justice even though Simon thought it was the best performance after Ace and Kellie.
- Is the first American Idol contestant to do an autograph signing at the Virgin Megastore in Times Square.
- Recorded "Real Love" with Katharine McPhee in an hour.
- Was scheduled to sing the National Anthem and "God Bless America" at the Washington Nationals' new stadium in D.C. on opening night (March 31st, 2008), the day his mother died. He was replaced by Denyce Graves.
- He continued his North America tour in the fall, again with Josh Hoge opening and adding the rock band The Last Goodnight. Drummer Glen Sobel replaced Felix Bloxsom in Yamin's band, and fellow American Idol 5 alumnus José "Sway" Penala was added to provide backing vocals. The tour kicked off on October 5 in Chicago and ended on November 26 in Washington, DC.
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