You Hee Yeol's bio

You Hee-Yeol is Korean pop singer-songwriter, composer and pianist. He is the leader of his one-man project band Toy.

Biography

Yoo Hee-yeol was born in Seoul and attended Kyungbock High School. He graduated from Seoul National University's College of Music, with a major in composition. He first appeared in the local pop music scene by winning the grand prize at the 4th Yoo Jae-ha Music Contest held in 1992 with the song The Moonlight Song. In 1994 he started the band Toy as a duo with Yoon Jeong-oh. But after releasing Toy's first album, Yoon Jeong-oh left the band to study overseas and Yoo Hee-yeol joined the navy for his mandatory military service. Since 1996, Toy became a one-man band with Yoo Hee-yeol as the sole member. After his discharge from military service, he successfully released Toy's second album Fairy Tales for Adults with the title song Remember I Was Next to You sung by Kim Yeon-woo becoming a big hit. From then on, Yoo rarely sings the songs in his albums and instead, invites guest vocalists such as Kim Yeon-woo, Kim Hyung-joong, Lee Jang-woo, Yoon Jong-shin, Kim Jang-hoon, Jinu and Byeon Jae-won.

Yoo has also produced many albums for K-pop musicians like Lee Seung-hwan, Yoon Jong-shin, Lee Sora and Lee Moon-se.

In July 1999, Yoo published a book of illustrations titled In Front of a Familiar House which received a good response from his fans. The album released under the same title of the book was filled with instrumental tracks in various genres in which he showed off his talent in musical composition.

Besides songwriting, Yoo is a radio DJ. He's been heard on the radio airwaves on MBC FM4U's Yoo Hee-yeol's Music City from 1999 to March 2001, on MBC FM4U's All That Music from October 2, 2002 to April 25, 2004, and on KBS 2FM's Yoo Hee-yeol's Radio Heaven from 2008 to Nov 11, 2011.

Yoo has been hosting the major K-pop live music show Yoo Hee-yeol's Sketchbook on KBS 2TV since 2009. close