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Elliott Yamin is in the final 3 for American Idol.  The underdog has risen.  But what do we know about Elliott? 

Elliot Yamin, who is 90 percent deaf in his right ear and diabetic, joins Taylor Hicks and Katharine McPhee as one of the three finalists in the fifth season of “American Idol.”

“I never knew Elliott could sing,” said his mother, Claudette Yamin. “About a year ago I went to karaoke. … the noise level was very high and then Elliott came out. And when he opened his mouth and started singing, you could hear a pin drop and I thought, ‘Oh my God.’”

His karaoke performance at a local restaurant earned him $1,000 and the confidence needed to push himself to

audition before reaching the show’s age cutoff.

Before he quit his job and slept outside on the streets of Boston in order to audition in July, Yamin tested his talents

on family and friends.

Yamin stood in Kelly McMillan’s kitchen belting out the chorus from Hathaway’s version of “A Song For You,” just days before the audition. She had heard him sing a few times before, but the song brought tears to her eyes.

“We teased him and asked him to sing for us,” said McMillan, his future sister-in-law. “We told him he wouldn’t get our votes unless we heard him. … I think all of our jaws dropped.”

Other relatives joined America in hearing Yamin sing for the first time on the show.

“None of us ever knew he could sing,” said his cousin, Chuck Lessin, who went to see Yamin perform last month. “The first time I heard him sing was the first time he was on (the show).”

Before “American Idol” Yamin had never done much public singing outside of karaoke, and a few times with a band.

“He has no professional training. His singing is what he feels,” said Claudette Yamin. “How he hears what he hears, enough to be able to sing on key and everything, is remarkable.”

While some – including tough-to-please judge Simon Cowell – call Yamin the show’s best male singer, some question his stage persona and star quality. But his supporters say there’s more to being a performer than just looks.

“Whatever he may lack in stage presence, he has more than made up for that in his absolutely authentic modest and humble personality,” said Lessin.

Virginia has embraced Yamin as its native “Idol.” Radio and TV airwaves stream with mentions and pictures of Yamin. Businesses have hosted viewing and voting parties and arranged space on a giant billboard along Interstate 95 encouraging everyone to vote for the hometown star.

At 10, Yamin moved from Los Angeles to Richmond with his brother and recently divorced mother. Until recently, Yamin hadn’t met his sister, whom his mother gave up for adoption.

Although he wasn’t a problem child, his mother said, academics didn’t top his list of priorities.

“He was not a student and in the 10th grade … the school said, ‘You’re a nice kid, we like you, but get the hell out,’” Claudette Yamin said. “So I went to court to petition to legally let Elliott quit school. Had I not, I would have been arrested for truancy.”

After Yamin left high school, he searched for jobs, and found a friend in the process.

Tony Klisiewicz offered Yamin a full-time job at Foot Locker and made a deal with the then 16-year-old Yamin – he could work there if he promised to earn his General Education Diploma. Yamin lived up to the deal. “The school pretty much gave up on him,” said Klisiewicz. “He’s a great guy, he just needed some help along the way.”

And there, among the shoeboxes in the stockroom, Klisiewicz said, Yamin honed his talent.

“He used to sing in the back room constantly,” he said. “The kid can sing anything.”

Yamin went through the management training program, and later worked at a local pharmacy and as an on-air disc jockey for a local R&B radio station, using the name “E-Dub.”

But Yamin wanted to do more than just play the songs of the artists he admired most – he wanted to sing them.

“I always said Elliott was my little lost boy because he never found anything that made him happy,” said Claudette Yamin. “He just never found his niche. And, I guess this is it. I guess this it what he’s been striving for all his life.”
Those weren’t hysterical teeny-boppers chasing Elliott Yamin through the streets of Richmond yesterday. They were grown women (and a few men) in business garb. The sedate capital went bonkers when the white stretch Expedition carrying the homegrown “American Idol” finalist pulled into town.

The budding star had a busy day — a parade, meeting with Gov. Tim Kaine and an appearance at a sold out Richmond Braves baseball game. Not bad for a former pharmacy employee.
 
“I’m the same old ‘E.’ I just travel in bigger sizes now,” Yamin told Richmond radio station WRVQ. “I feel like I’ve already won. I’ll feel happy with whatever comes my way.”

The 27-year-old singer belted out just one song — “Home” by Michael Buble — on a stage erected in a park. The master of ceremonies estimated the cheering crowd at 5,000. Fans also checked out the show from nearby rooftops. That’s Yamania for you, folks.

Earlier in the day, Virginia Tourism Corp. issued a news release announcing that the “Virginia Is for Lovers” slogan had been “temporarily adapted” to “Virginia Is for Elliott Lovers.” (Stick that on your bumper, Simon).

But what if Elliott’s booted from the show?

“Virginia will always be for Elliott lovers,” the tourism corporation’s Tamra Talmadge-Anderson assured us.

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