Bars and Melody Biography

Bars and Melody (also known as BAM) 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".

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.

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 straight through to the live semi-finals. Their audition has since been viewed on YouTube more than 77 million times.

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. 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.

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

Despite not winning, it was reported that Bars and Melody were set to sign a £500,000 record deal. 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. The music video of their song "Hopeful" was released on YouTube on 7 July 2014. Their debut single was released on 27 July 2014 and went straight to number five on the UK Singles Chart. To promote the song, they appeared on television shows such as This Morning and Good Morning Britain as well as The Official Chart on BBC Radio 1.

Bars and Melody also participated in their first HMV signing tour. 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"; it was released on 16 February 2015 and peaked at 52 in the Official Charts Company. The duo went on their debut headline tour, the 'Stay Strong Tour', in March/April 2015 to preview songs from their album. Their third official single "Stay Strong" coincided with the tour and was released alongside a music video on 6 April 2015. Two physical editions of the CD could be purchased with each one containing an image of either Charlie or Leondre. They also participated in a second HMV signing tour for promotion. The boys confirmed the release of their debut album 143 for 21 August 2015 followed in November by a second headline tour - the 143 Album Tour. This tour, which will be Bars and Melody's first outside of the UK, features scheduled dates in Poland and the Netherlands.
As of 26 April 2015, Devries and Lenehan are presenters on the CBBC show Friday Download.

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. Lenehan 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, his grandfather, Dennis, bought him a microphone and speakers. Lenehan, 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 Devries, who was impressed with his work. The pair started chatting and in January started to meet up and practice together.

Leondre Devries
Leondre Antonio Devries (born 6 October 2000) is from Port Talbot, Neath Port Talbot, Wales. He attends the Glan Afan Comprehensive School. Devries lives with his mother Victoria. He has two older brothers, Ben and Joseph was part of the boyband "Overload Generation" who participated in the eleventh series of UK's The X Factor and he also has a younger sister Tilly. Devries is extremely close to his 4 cousins, Jess, Ellie, Daisy and Erin. Leondre Devries has spoken openly about his experiences of bullying at a young age. Previously he was rapping solo under the stage name 'Little Dre'.