About Bars and Melody
Bars and Melody are a R&B and rap duo consisting of rapper Leondre Devries and singer Charlie Lenehan, who took part in the eighth series of Britain's Got Talent in 2014. During their audition, they were automatically sent into the semifinals of the competition after the head judge, Simon Cowell, pressed the golden buzzer. They ultimately finished in third place in the series. Their first single after the show, "Shining Star", was released on 30 July 2014, accompanied by the acoustic version of their song "Hopeful".
Bars and Melody released their debut studio album "143" on 21 August 2015. It debuted at number four on the Official UK Charts. Two years later, their EP "Teen Spirit" was released. This was followed by self release "Generation Z" then "Sadboi" in 2020 on Universal Music. In January 2021 Bars & Melody released the "Carpe Diem E.P" signaling a change in their sound and future. They generally refer to their fans as "bambinos", or occasionally as the "bamfam".
Devries and Lenehan first met on social media in September 2013, after Devries had seen Lenehan's videos. They first met in person in January 2014 to form a music duo as Bars and Melody. 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 performance, Simon Cowell pressed the golden buzzer, sending them straight to the live semifinals. Before the semifinals, the group appeared and performed on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in the United States. 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 were given candles to wave during the performance. They won their semi-final and progressed through to the final, where they performed the song they sang in their audition and ultimately finished third behind Lucy Kay and Collabro. According to Billboard magazine, the video of their audition was number six in the top ten trending videos for 2014.
Despite not winning, Bars and Melody signed a £500,000 record deal with Simon Cowell's record label, Syco, which released "Hopeful" in July 2014. Their debut single went straight to number five on the UK Singles Chart. The music video of their song "Hopeful" was released on YouTube on 7 July 2014. To promote the song, they appeared on television shows such as Good Morning Britain, This Morning, and The Official Chart on BBC Radio 1. By late September, the song "Hopeful" was number 33 on the Twitter Top Tracks. Bars and Melody also participated in their first HMV signing tour to promote Hopeful. They released the song "Shining Star", which came out as part of Hopeful Acoustic. Their second single, "Keep Smiling", was released on 28 February 2015, with a music video filmed in Plymouth. It peaked at 52 in the Official Charts Company. Their third official single, "Stay Strong", was released on 18 April 2015 and peaked at 53 in the Official Charts Company. Two physical editions of the CD could be purchased with each one containing an image of either Lenehan or Devries, promoted through a second HMV signing tour. They released their fourth single "Beautiful" in June 2015 alongside a music video.
The group released their debut album, 143, on 21 August 2015, which peaked at number four on the UK Albums Chart on 28 August 2015. The album included their previously recorded singles and additional songs. To promote the album, they toured across the United Kingdom in the summer and had a winter tour in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Poland, where the album went platinum. Following a guest presenting stint in 2014, Bars and Melody made a red carpet appearance at the premiere of CBBC show Friday Download in May 2015. They also participated in the Friday Download movie called Up All Night. They performed the third ending theme "Unite " for the anime series Future Card Buddyfight Triple D. They appeared on BBC's Newsround during a week-long series about bullying in February 2015.
In 2016, they toured five cities with Kiera Weathers, a contestant on The X Factor, in February and April of that year. The cities included London, Birmingham, Bristol, Glasgow, and Liverpool. They also became ambassadors for the Anti Bullying Charity campaign that year. In August 2016, their album Teen Spirit was released by Syco. They toured Australia and Japan by August 2016.
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