Career
He along with American singer, actor and television host Kevin Woo remained member of the boy band ‘Xing’ for some time. While promoting with the band he came to be known as Poppin' Dragon.
In 2009, he made his debut with the South Korean boy band ‘Beast’ that include four other members at present namely Yang Yo-seob, Yoon Doo-joon, Son Dong-woon and Lee Gi-kwang while Jang Hyun-seung left the band officially in April 2016.
Initially called ‘B2ST’ that is ‘Boys 2 Search the Top’, the name of the group was later changed to ‘BEAST’ an acronym for ‘Boys of East Asia Standing Tall’.
The debut showcase of ‘Beast’ was held in October 2009 at the MTV GongGae Hall. On October 14, 2009, the group released its first EP ‘Beast Is The B2ST’ and made its debut live performance on KBS aired South Korean music program ‘Music Bank’ with the group’s debut single ‘Bad Girl’.
He remained a contestant with Beast in the 2010 ‘Idol Star Athletics Championships’ that aired on MBC from September 25th to 26th of that year.
The ensuing years saw him featuring in other variety shows. He appeared as a contestant in Idol Star Athletics Championships (2012) and ‘My Little Television’ (2017); a cast member in ‘Law of the Jungle in Samoa’ (2015); and as co-host in ‘Hitmaker S3’ (2016-17).
In March 2011, ‘Beast’ made its Japanese debut with the Japanese version of their March 2010 released single ‘Shock’. That year on May 17 the group also released their first full-length album, ‘Fiction and Fact’ that climbed atop the Gaon's Monthly Chart for May 2011 with a sale of 90,000 copies.
Discography of ‘Beast’ includes 9 Korean mini-albums, 3 Korean full-length albums, 2 Japanese full-length albums and several singles. Apart from lending his voice, Yong has also contributed lyrics and music in many of the tracks of the group both singly as also in collaboration with other artists.
Some of the tracks of ‘Beast’ that include his collaborative contribution as lyricist are ‘Bad Girl’ and ‘Mystery’ from the album ‘Beast Is the B2ST’ (2009); ‘Shock’ and ‘Special’ from the album ‘Shock of the New Era’ (2010); and ‘Fiction’ and ‘On Rainy Days’ from the album ‘Fiction and Fact’ (2011) among many others.
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He has contributed lyrics and music to several tracks of ‘Beast’ in collaboration with others include tracks like ‘Thank To’ from the album ‘My Story’ (2010), ‘Freeze’ from the album ‘Fiction and Fact’ (2011); and ‘How to Love’ and ‘Will You Be Alright?’ from the album ‘Hard to Love, How to Love’ (2013) to mention a few.
Yong has over the years featured as a rapper in singles of several artists. These include tracks like ‘Change’ (2010) and ‘A Bitter Day’ (2011) of Hyuna; ‘I'll Back Off So You Can Live Better’ (2010) of G.NA; and ‘Don't Walk Away’ (2013) of Kim Jae-joong.
In early 2012, he appeared in a cameo role of a Joker in the third episode of the South Korean sitcom ‘Salamander Guru and The Shadows’. On February 3 of same year he released his solo non-album single ‘Living Without You’ that was written in hip-hop style by him along with Rado with the latter contributing its music.
He landed up with the main role of Yoon Seol-chan along with Ha Yeon-soo and Kang Ha-neul in the romance music teen drama ‘Monstar’ that aired on Mnet and tvN for 12 episodes from May 17, 2013 to August 2, 2013. The series brought him several award nominations winning him Best New Actor award at the 6th Korea Drama Awards that year.
He also appeared in several soundtracks of ‘Monstar’ including in ‘Past Days’ with BtoB and Ha Yeon-soo; in ‘First Love’ with BtoB; and in ‘Don't Make Me Cry’ with Park Kyu-sun, Dahee, Kim Min-young, Kang Ha-neul, Ha Yeon-soo and Kang Eui-sik.
He came up with his debut mini-album ‘Flower’ under ‘Cube Entertainment in December 2013. Consisting of five tracks, the EP released on all online music sites at 12 A.M. KST on that day. Its title track called ‘Flower’ moved atop music charts while other tracks like ‘Anything’ and ‘Caffeine (Piano Version)’ also garnered popularity.
He wrote lyrics and composed music of all of the tracks of the mini-album ‘Flower’ along with Kim Tae-joo (Good Life) except the track ‘Nothing Is Forever’.
He along with Kim Tae-joo remained part of the Cube TV aired reality show ‘Yong Jun Hyung's Good Life’ in 2015.
He released another non-album single titled ‘After This Moment’ in 2016. The lyrics of the single was contributed by him. The music of the single was his collaborative effort with Davii.
In late 2016, Yong and four other members of ‘Beast’ moved from ‘Cube Entertainment’ to ‘Around Us Entertainment’ and in 2017 the name of the band was changed to ‘Highlight’. The first album of the group under rebranded name ‘Highlight’ was the March 2017 released extended play ‘Can You Feel It?’.
Yong continued to contribute lyrics and music of several tracks of the boy band following its rechristening as ‘Highlight’. Some such tracks are ‘Plz Don't Be Sad’ and ‘It's Still Beautiful’ from the album ‘Can You Feel It?’ (2017), and ‘Can Be Better’ from the album ‘Celebrate’ (2017).
His last endeavour as a solo artist so far is the album ‘Wonder If’ (2017) consisting two tracks. Lyrics of its first track ‘Wonder If’ was given by Yong and Heize while its music had contributions from the two along with Kim Tae-joo (Good Life). Yong contributed to the lyrics of its second track ‘Too Much Love Kills Me’ singly, the music of which was composed by him along with Kim Tae-joo.
