Rado: 'Thieves left empty-handed during our struggling days'

Rado, the husband of Apink's Yoon Bo Mi and a renowned producer, has revealed the extreme financial hardships he endured before becoming a famous hitmaker. Although he is now a producer who has created numerous hit songs, he confessed to spending difficult economic times during his group activities, to the point where he had to worry about his next meal.

On the 8th episode of KBS's 'Happy Together: Glad We're Not Alone' airing on the 4th, Rado will appear not as a producer, but as the youngest member of the R&B group Someday to reminisce about his past. The broadcast will feature Yoo Jae Suk, Jang Hang Jun, and Yoon Jong-shin, along with special MC Ahn Eun-jin.

Someday is an R&B group that gained recognition for the 'Do You Know' OST from the drama 'Boys Over Flowers.' At the time, the song gained significant popularity, even reaching number one on the Minihompy BGM charts, but the reality experienced by the members was the exact opposite. Leader Jung Se-young confessed on the show that they had almost no income during their activities and even shared tops and bottoms of their stage outfits.

Rado's confession is even more specific. He recalled that the four members would buy a single serving of food and split it over three days just to manage one meal. This highlights the harsh reality for rookie groups where a song becomes known to the public, but the actual revenue returning to the singers is minimal.

There was even a shocking anecdote. Rado said, "It was so bad that a thief broke into our house, but after seeing us, they just left as they were." He explained that it was a situation where the thief, witnessing the members' destitute living conditions, seemingly judged that there was nothing worth stealing.

While presented as a humorous reminiscence, it is also a scene that symbolically shows the reality of the music industry at the time, where fame and economic success did not necessarily go hand in hand.

Director Jang Hang Jun also built rapport by sharing his own past impoverished life as a newlywed. He revealed that during his honeymoon period with his wife, screenwriter Kim Eun-hee, they once managed four meals with just one bowl of Jjamppong. The method was to eat the noodles for the first meal and then use the remaining broth to eat it like Jjamppong rice.

In response, Rado drew laughter by expressing solidarity, saying, "It wasn't just us who struggled."

The reason their stories of the past are interesting is that they stand in stark contrast to their current success. Rado later expanded his field of activity as a composer and producer, creating numerous hit songs and establishing a unique color, particularly in girl group production and music producing. He has grown his presence in the K-pop production field to the point of earning the nickname 'Subeoji,' meaning the 'Father of STAYC.'

Rado has established himself as a producer who goes beyond simply providing hit songs to co-designing an artist's concept and musical direction. It is evaluated that his experience standing on stage as an unknown singer became an asset in understanding the structure of the music industry and the reality of artists during his subsequent career as a producer.

Even from the perspective of a personal success story, the stories from the Someday era are meaningful. In the popular culture industry, the popularity of a single song does not immediately lead to an artist's economic stability. This is because various factors such as music release revenue, planning/production costs, activity periods, and settlement structures are intertwined. The fact that the reality of 'splitting one serving over three days' existed behind the glamorous record of 'Number 1 on Minihompy BGM' clearly shows the instability that rookie singers had to endure at the time.

A major change also came to Rado's life later on. After dating Apink member Yoon Bo Mi for about 10 years, he held a wedding ceremony at a hotel in Yongsan-gu, Seoul, this May. Having become a married couple after a long relationship, the two drew attention as a representative long-term dating couple in the entertainment industry who successfully tied the knot.

Yoon Bo Mi also expanded her career as a singer, actress, and entertainer after debuting with Apink in 2011, through numerous hits such as 'Mr. Chu,' 'NoNoNo,' and 'LUV.' While Rado has walked his own path as a producer and Yoon Bo Mi as an artist, they have ultimately begun writing the next chapter of their lives together under the name of husband and wife.

Behind glamorous success, there are unknown days that are not easily revealed. The anecdotes shared by Rado—the 'one serving for three days' and the thief who turned away—show that the current hitmaker was not someone who was on the trajectory of success from the very beginning. In the upcoming broadcast, attention is focused on how these stories of survival, once fueled by nothing but music, will unfold.