More Releases, Hiatus, and Disbandment (2013-15)Įncouraged by the positive numbers, Christian and his group released their third EP, “Shaking Heart” on 18 April 2013. It also marked the group’s first entry to the Billboard K-Pop Hot 100, peaking at No.75.Ĭhristian felt that having released two music videos (MV) of the song helped with the promotions as those two MVs garnered a total of six million views, which was quite a good number at that time. This time, the album’s lead track was well received, and entered the Top 10 peaking at No.7 on the Gaon Digital Chart. The EP charted at No.15 on the Gaon Album Chart, and the sales figures almost doubled as compared to their first album, with close to 4,500 units sold. It had seven tracks including “Good Night,” “Cold,” and the lead song, “Meol Eojikkabwa,” which in English translates to “Far Away, Young Love.” Just like the debut album, the remaining tracks in the EP consisted of instrumental versions of the three songs, and an acoustic version of the lead track. Three months after their debut, Christian and the boys released their second EP entitled “Young Love” on 11 November 2012. However, the song only peaked at No.82 on the Gaon Digital Chart. They had their television debut performance on Mnet’s “M Countdown” the day after the EP was released, and went on to perform the lead track in other popular music shows.
The album peaked at No.14 on the South Korean Gaon Album Chart but soon fell off the charts, and ended up with only 2,600 units sold. They released their extended play (EP) entitled “Not Alone”, consisting of six tracks including “Cha Aneseo” (“In The Car”), “I’m Not Alone,” and the lead track, “Solo” – the rest of the tracks were instrumental versions of the three songs. On 18 July 2012, he officially debuted as the leader of the boyband, C-CLOWN, with five other trainees, namely Kang Jun, Maru, Ray, Siwoo, and T.K.
It was great exposure for him, as his team competed against the popular boyband, Super Junior, and he was able to showcase his b-boy dancing skills, as well as his athletic prowess on the show. He trained under the label’s resident mentors on vocal, dance and rap for a few years, and appeared in the KBS’ sports variety show entitled “Let’s Go! Dream Team Season 2” for a couple of special episodes featuring rookies like him.
Christian was then using the stage name Rome, which was taken from his Korean name Yu Barom. He signed-up with Yedam Entertainment, which later changed its name to Banana Culture Music, former home to South Korean music icons such as Seo Taiji and the Boys. He stopped uploading videos to prepare for his debut. His account had only 18 videos posted from 2008 to 2012, but he had already drummed up interest as his account has accumulated close to 5 million views, which at that time was already a huge thing, considering that he hadn’t debuted yet. His most viewed video with 2.2 million views was him giving tutorials in a major element of b-boying, which was Toprock. He started a YouTube account under the name of Barom Yu in 2008, posting videos of different styles of dancing, particularly b-boying. He attended local schools in Sydney, and then took-up a bachelor’s degree in arts at the University of Sydney, but soon dropped out to pursue a different career path in South Korea.Ĭhristian flew to South Korea when he was 18 years old to explore any dancing opportunities in the entertainment industry. When he legally became an adult, he flew to Seoul to pursue his dreams of becoming a K-Pop artist. Growing up, he was interested in dancing, swimming and surfing. A post shared by Christian Yu a child, he thought movies were real and was obsessed with mystical fairies and supernatural beings such as leprechauns.