OTTAWA — When Ottawan Shayne Orok started posting bedroom vocal and piano performances onto YouTube in 2008, he could hardly have imagined it would take him to Seoul, South Korea, where he is now the only foreign finalist of Star Audition’s four remaining contestants.

The 18-year-old graduated from Holy Trinity Catholic High School last summer and is now a music student at Toronto’s Humber College, but because he keeps surviving K-pop boot camp on the popular, nationally broadcast Idol-like show, he’s had to put his studies on hold for the time being.

Shayne’s many YouTube videos, including covers and original songs posted under the handle “elshaynez,” have been viewed more than seven million times. People send in candy, hand-drawn portraits and more to his P.O. Box, and he maintains another, more personal YouTube channel under the handle “stripesboi” to keep in touch with fans and thank them for their packages.

Perhaps what is most remarkable about Shayne’s rising star status in South Korea was his complete inability — in the beginning, at least — to speak any Korean whatsoever. Late last year after noticing an international competition to find the next K-pop star, hosted jointly by YouTube and South Korea’s Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation (MBC), he decided to learn a Korean song, submitted a video and ended up being flown to Seoul in December with about 50 others from around the world, says his father, Bruce Orok. Shayne has been living there and competing ever since, aside from a Christmas-time break back in Canada.

And he’s not even remotely Korean. His mother, Rowena Orok, was born in the Philippines and Bruce is Canadian. (Both, incidentally, are managers in the public service.) Shayne gets by in Korea with the help of translators, who even join him onstage when it’s time to be critiqued, and one of the five judges on the show, who acts as his mentor and helps him learn Korean songs.

Shayne is the only contestant left who doesn’t speak the language, but Bruce says Shayne is getting a better handle on the language and pronunciation.

Here at home in Ottawa, where Shayne was born and raised, Bruce monitors his son’s progress in Korea, and even joined Facebook a few days ago to reply to messages left on fan pages by Shayne’s growing legion of supporters. Rowena flew to Seoul last week to be with Shayne during the finals, with help from members of a new official Shayne Orok fan club based there. His 16-year-old brother, Justin, meanwhile, continues with high school and his guitar lessons (both giving and receiving).

Starting several weeks ago, the shows have been aired live every Friday night (Friday morning here in Ottawa) and there are only three left to go. The winner will receive about $300,000 and an MBC-sponsored recording debut.

Shayne started playing piano when he was about five or six, Bruce says, and sang with choirs for a few of his early years before quitting. But it wasn’t for long.

“He sort of stopped singing for a while and then he got hooked onto YouTube and he got a camcorder, and the rest, as they say, is history,” Bruce says.

“He’s a really focused young man, so every week is like a mission for him, to learn a song and work with his mentor,” Bruce says. “He’s known in Korea. If he gets on the street once in awhile he’s stopped for autographs, and to do all that in a different country with a different language that he has to learn week by week, it’s quite an accomplishment, really.”

To view one of Shayne's YouTube videos, click here.