K-pop vocalist Yong Jun-hyung emerged as part of the key second generation boy group Beast in 2009, who moved through the 2010s with a string of chart-topping albums and EPs. After leaving the group in 2019, he returned as a soloist with the 2022 mini-album LONER. Born in Korea's capital city of Seoul, vocalist, producer, and actor Yong Jun-hyung began his career in music in his late teens, joining boy band Xing under the alias of Poppin' Dragon in 2007. Signing to Cube Entertainment just a few years later, Junhyung was announced as a member of boy group Beast in 2009, which debuted later that year with the EP Beast Is the B2ST. Encouraged by strong sales and award show success, the group landed their first music show win on M Countdown with the single "Shock," taken from their second EP Shock of the New Era (2010). The group was an immediate commercial success, and it wasn't long before their fourth EP, Lights Go On Again, debuted at number one on the Korean charts, followed swiftly by chart-topping albums Fiction and Fact (2011) and Hard to Love, How to Love (2013) alongside number one EPs Midnight Sun (2012), Good Luck (2014), Time (2014), and Ordinary (2015). Throughout this period, Junhyung worked prolifically as an actor, reality TV star, producer, and solo artist, appearing on shows like Monstar, Coffee Do Me a Favor, and Hitmaker, and producing the entirety of bandmate Yang Yo-soeb's debut EP The First Collage. His solo career flourished with work alongside HyunA, Wheesung, and G.NA, as well as the 2013 solo EP Flower, which debuted at number four on the Gaon chart. After issuing two more LPs ins2016 (Guess Who? and Highlight), Junhyung and the group left Cube, rebranding as Highlight under the new organization Around Us Entertainment. Further mini-albums Can You Feel It? and Celebrate followed in 2017 before Highlight issued a special album, Outro, following Doo-joon's departure for military service. In 2019, Junhyung announced his own departure from the group. Yong Jun-hyung returned to music in September 2022, three years after his departure from Highlight. His first release was the 2022 mini-album LONER, followed in 2023 by the single "Post It." ~ David Crone