The 6-time Crown Winner & Champion of King of Masked Singer, Joo Yoon Bal or Chow Yun Fat is none other than our very own maknae-leader Kang Seungyoon !! It was his second time contesting on the show- He had previously contested as the Ascetic Fan Guru in 2017.
He first won the crown against ‘Sweet 18‘ on March 1, 2020 (Episodes 243-244), and would continue to successfully defend his crown 5 more times till his final reveal in Episode 256 broadcast on May 24, 2020. He won a total of 6 times becoming one of the most successful and longest reigning Kings in KOMS history with multiple records (as of May 24, 2020) :
- Top Idol & Youngest Masked King
- Top 2 Male Masked Kings (tied with SG Wannabe’s Lee Seok Hoon with 6 wins each)
- Top 3 Masked Kings with most wins ever (tied with Sohyang and SG Wannabe’s Lee Seok Hoon with 6 wins each)
KOMS also hit some its highest ratings in 2 years during Joo Yoon Bal’s stint ! Also, do read his insightful KOMS Exit Interview.
Watch & be mesmerized by God Yoon vocals. The English subbed Yoon cuts are provided in the Gdrive folder link below, while full episodes can be found on any streaming site. Read on for a detailed account of his guesting.
Episode 243-244
In Round-1 Joo Yoon Bal went against ‘Kettle‘ (Rhythm Power’s Boi B) with a duet performance of Cho Yong Pil’s Short Hair. Joo Yoon Bal won with a overwhelming majority of 77 vs 22 votes.
Short Hair
Original: Cho Yong Pil
Moving to Round-2, he covered Sam Kim’s Goblin OST Who Are You, showcasing a range of vocal techniques, pitted against ‘Pinwheels‘ (Soyul) who performed Taeyeon’s Can you Hear Me. He won with 78 vs 21 votes.
Who Are You (Goblin OST)
Original: Sam Kim
For Round-3, Joo Yoon Bal covered Kim Jin Ho’s Family Picture, a truly fantastic stage with his power vocals fully unleashed against ‘Giraffe Picture I painted‘ (Im Kang-Sung) who performed Boohwal’s Secret. Continuing his winning streak, he won with 76 vs 23 votes.
Family Portrait
Original: Kim Jinho
His final battle was against the reigning 5-time Masked Queen ‘Sweet 18‘, who gave a rousing performance of Yim Jae Beom’s Where Are You. It was a very close battle – but Joo Yoon Bal won with 53 vs 46 votes to earn his First Crown and become the 122nd Generation Masked King by defeating So Chan-whee (Sweet 18), the veteran rock singer !!
Note of interest: Lee Sangmin was a celebrity panelist in these 2 episodes and he was so mesmerized by Joo Yoon Bal’s voice that he claimed to want to secretly follow the masked singer after the show filming to find his identity! Eventually, this led to Sangmin inviting Seungyoon on his show, War of the Villains to collaborate with the legendary old-days singer Song Changsik, which further led to a guesting on Yoo Hee Yeol’s Sketchbook.
Episode 246
Joon Yoon Bal defended his throne with a touching performance of Nell’s Drifting Apart, against the new contender ‘Yellow Swallowtail‘ (I’ll of Hoppipolla). He swept the votes 84 – 15 to win his Second Crown and become the 123rd Generation Masked Singer.
Drifting Apart
Original: NELL
Episode 248
Due to the COVID pandemic, episodes from here on only had a celebrity panelist of 21 members, instead of the usual 100 celebrity+regular voters. Joon Yoon Bal defended his throne with a beautiful whispered performance of Lee Juck’s Lies Lies Lies (all those WooOoo‘s are such a treat to the ear <3), against the ‘Half-Moon Prince‘, who was Micheal K. Lee, a famous American theatre actor and singer. A nail-bitingly close battle with just a single vote difference! However, Joon Yoon Bal prevailed by receiving 11 vs 10 votes to win his Third Crown and become the 124th Generation Masked Singer.
Lie Lie Lie
Original: Lee Juck
Episode 250
For his next defence, Joo Yoon Bal changed up styles and sang a happy, peppy cover of Cho Yong Pil’s Bounce against ‘Hamster’ (Bubble Sister’s Rangshow). He won his Fourth Crown with 16 vs 5 votes to become 125th Generation Masked King.
Bounce
Original: Cho Yong Pil
Episode 252
For this battle, Joo Yoon Bal performed a powerful yet comforting cover of YB’s Blue Whale, which brought tears to some of the panelists. He won comfortably with 14 vs 7 votes against ‘Jjamjjamyeon’ (Ji Won-yi, a popular trot performer), claiming his Fifth Crown as the 126th Generation Masked King. At this point, Seungyoon had equaled Super Junior’s Kyuhyun’s KOMS Idol record of 5 wins.
Blue Whale
Original: YB
Episode 254
This battle would decide if Yoon could break into the league of the Top 3 longest reigning Masked Kings on the show. He covered Jaurim’s 25,21 in such a dazzling performance, that just his opening croons of OoooOoo‘s elicited exclaims from the panelists! It was one of his most popular KOMS stages and his first KOMS performance to hit 1 million views on Youtube!
He was pitted against the famous contestant of Korea’s Mr.Trot and the real life inspiration of the movie ‘My Paparotti‘ : Kim Ho Joong, (‘Korean Beef 1++’) with a classical powerful rendition of Mt Chilgab, reminiscent of mountain spirits! In a close battle, Joo Yoon Bal received 12 vs 9 votes, winning him his Sixth Crown and the title of 127th Generation Masked King! With this win, Kang Seungyoon had broken into the Top 3 league of longest reigning Masked Kings in KOMS history!!
Twenty-Five, Twenty-One
Original: Jaurim
Episode 256
Seungyoon’s final performance as Joo Yoon Bal was the explosive cover of Boohwal’s Lonely Night against ‘Shield‘ – Choi Jae-rim, a well-known musical actor, who impressed with his cover of Itaewon Class’s OST Diamond. A battle of just a one-vote difference, he received 10 vs 11 votes and went onto reveal his identity as Kang Seungyoon after a successful long reign of Six Generations / Crowns.
Receiving high praise from the panelists, he was also acknowledged for his growth from his early days by MC Kim Sung-joo who was also the MC for Superstar K2. The year 2020 also marked Seungyoon’s 10 years as a singer since Superstar K2 and to commemorate it, Seungyoon sang a acapella version of his claim-to-fame song- Instinctively.
Our sincere thanks to King of Masked Singer for heralding Seungyoon’s second wave and the start of his Solo ventures as WINNER goes on hiatus with its members in military. Here’s to wishing Seungyoon all the best for his upcoming Solo music career and acting career with Kairos!
Check out the tags for more about his KOMS performances, interviews and pictures!
Lonely Night
Original: Boohwal
Playlist: Live Stages (Clean Version)
Official Photos
Photos from Naver | @mbc_entertain
Translation taken from Kocowa
Subbed by WLSYsubs
WLSY 