Bars and Melody

Bars and Melody also known as BAM for short are a British singing/rapping duo consisting of rapper Leondre Devries ("Bars") and singer Charlie Lenehan ("Melody"). They took part in the eighth series of Britain's Got Talent in 2014. During their audition, they had automatically been entered into the semi-finals of Britain's Got Talent after the head judge Simon Cowell pressed the "golden buzzer", a new feature introduced in the eighth series, and finished in third place.

After the show, Bars and Melody signed a record deal with Syco Music. Their debut single "Hopeful" was released on 25 July 2014. Also five days later, they brought out a new single "Shining Star" (30 July 2014), this was an extra to their acoustic version of "Hopeful". They refer to their fans as "Bambinos".(TalentsJRMOfficialFanPage)

Background

Devries and Lenehan first met in September 2013 on Facebook, after Devries had seen Lenehan's solo performances. They first met each other in person in January 2014 and decided to form a music duo as Bars and Melody, or B.A.M.^[1]

Career

2014: Britain's Got Talent

On 8 February 2014, Bars and Melody auditioned in Manchester for the eighth series of Britain's Got Talent. They performed a song based on Twista and Faith Evans' "Hope", with Devries replacing the original verses with ones protesting against bullying. After the audition, the audience began chanting "Push the gold!" and Simon Cowell responded by pressing the golden buzzer, sending them through.^[2] Their audition has since been viewed on YouTube more than 70 million times.^[3]

Before the semi-finals, the boys were interviewed on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in the United States, and numerous adverts were posted on Facebook. They advertised Britain's Got Talent and themselves, as well as performing their audition piece.^[4] In the BGT semi-final on 29 May, they performed Puff Daddy and Faith Evans' "I'll Be Missing You", coupled with new verses about someone who had recently lost a friend; audience members having been given candles to wave during their performance. They won their semi-final and progressed through to the final.^[5]

In the final, they performed the song they sang in their first audition and ultimately finished third behind Lucy Kay and Collabro.^[6]

2014–present: Debut single

Despite not winning, it was reported that Bars and Melody were set to sign a £500,000 record deal.^[7] On 15 June 2014, it was announced that Bars and Melody had signed an initial one-single deal with Simon Cowell's record label, Syco.^[8] The music video of their song "Hopeful" was released on YouTube on 7 July 2014.^[9][10] Their debut single was released on 27 July 2014 and went straight to number five on the UK Singles Chart. They also released the single "Shining Star", which came out as part of Hopeful Acoustic. In 2015, B.A.M released a new single called "Keep Smiling", which was available for pre-order on iTunes from 31 January 2015, with it being officially released on 16 February 2015. The video was released on 9 February 2015, it peaked at 52 in the Official Charts Company. The duo went on their debut headline tour in March/April 2015 to preview songs (Stay Strong, Stay Young) from their upcoming debut studio album, which is expected to be released in the fourth quarter of 2015. The boys have scheduled another '143 tour' around the UK in November.

Friday Download

Bars and Melody were guest presenters on Friday Download series 8 in episode 2, 7, 9 and 11. They will be permanent presenters from series 9 which starts on 24 April 2015. The programme is aired on CBBC with series 8 being aired on Saturday at 10:00-11:00 and series 9 on Fridays at 16:55-17:25.

Members

Charlie Lenehan

Charlie-Joe Lenehan-Green (born 27 October 1998) is from Frampton Cotterell, Bristol, England. He lives in Bournemouth with his mother, Karen and his younger sister, Brooke. ^{[11][12] [11]} Charlie first took to the stage at the age of 11 after starting at The Ridings' Federation Winterbourne International Academy. He was taking part in the school's Rock Island Project, and after forming a band with his schoolmates, was chosen as the singer. It was following this – and during parents' evening – his teachers commented on his talent. According to his mother Karen, a teacher came up to her on parents' evening and asked, "Have you heard your Charlie sing? He's really good." This comment really surprised her, as no one in the family had ever been a singer. After unearthing his hidden talent, Charlie's grandfather, Dennis, bought him a microphone and speakers. Charlie, who also writes his own music, later put up videos of himself singing on Facebook and YouTube, some of which attracted 50,000 hits – and was contacted by Leondre, who was impressed with his work. The pair started chatting and in January started to meet up and practice together. They began to visit each other's homes on weekends and during school holidays to practice.

Leondre Devries

Leondre Antonio Devries (born 6 October 2000). He is from Port Talbot, Wales. He attends the Glan Afan Comprehensive School.^[13] Devries lives with his mother Victoria and younger sister Matilda. His older brother, Joseph, was part of boyband Overload Generation from X Factor UK, Series 11. Devries has spoken openly about his experiences of bullying at a young age. Previously he was rapping solo under the stage name 'Little Dre'.^[14][15]

Discography

EPs

• 2014: Hopeful EP

Singles

References

External links

• Official Website
• Official YouTube
• Official Facebook