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Bars and Melody (often abbreviated as BAM) are a British 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
Simon Phillip Cowell (; born 7 October 1959) is an English television personality, entrepreneur and record executive. He is the creator of '' The X Factor'' and ''Got Talent'' franchises which have been sold around the world. He has judged on ...
, 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 Hopeful may refer to
* "Hopeful" (Ami Suzuki song)
* "Hopeful" (Bars and Melody song)
* Hopeful, Alabama
* Hopeful, Georgia
* Mount Hopeful Mount Hopeful is a peak standing north of the head of King George Bay and 1.5 nautical miles southeast of ...
".
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".
History
2013–15: Formation, ''Britain's Got Talent'' and ''143''
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
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...
for the eighth series of ''Britain's Got Talent''. They performed a song based on
Twista
Carl Terrell Mitchell (born November 27, 1973), better known by his stage name Twista (formerly Tung Twista), is an American rapper and record producer. He is best known for his chopper style of rapping and for once holding the title of fastes ...
and
Faith Evans
Faith Renée Evans (born June 10, 1973) is an American singer and actress. Born in Lakeland, Florida, and raised in New Jersey, she relocated to Los Angeles in 1991 for a career in the music business. After working as a backing vocalist for Al ...
' "
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
''The Ellen DeGeneres Show'' (often shortened to ''Ellen'' or ''The Ellen Show'') is an American daytime television variety comedy talk show that was created and hosted by its namesake Ellen DeGeneres. Debuting on September 8, 2003, it was pro ...
'' in the United States. In the ''BGT'' semi-final on 29 May, they performed
Puff Daddy and
Faith Evans
Faith Renée Evans (born June 10, 1973) is an American singer and actress. Born in Lakeland, Florida, and raised in New Jersey, she relocated to Los Angeles in 1991 for a career in the music business. After working as a backing vocalist for Al ...
' "
I'll Be Missing You
"I'll Be Missing You" is a song by American rapper Puff Daddy and American singer Faith Evans, featuring R&B group 112, in memory of fellow Bad Boy Records artist (and Evans's husband) Christopher "The Notorious B.I.G." Wallace, who was murder ...
", 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
Collabro were a UK-based musical theatre group and winners of the eighth series of ''Britain's Got Talent'' in 2014. The group consisted of Michael Auger, Jamie Lambert, Matthew Pagan and Thomas J. Redgrave. Richard Hadfield left the band in J ...
.
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
Syco Entertainment is a British media entertainment company, headquartered in London, founded and owned by British entrepreneur and record executive Simon Cowell. The company focuses on TV production. The company was formed in 2005 through So ...
, which released "Hopeful" in July 2014.
Their debut single went straight to number five on the
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...
.
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
''The Official Chart'' is a long-running United Kingdom music chart programme, airing each Friday afternoon on BBC Radio 1. It airs the UK Singles Chart compiled by the Official Charts Company.
In July 2015 ''The Official Chart'' moved from ...
'' on
BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including electronica, dance, ...
. By late September, the song "Hopeful" was number 33 on the
Twitter Top Tracks. Bars and Melody also participated in their first
HMV
Sunrise Records and Entertainment, trading as HMV (for His Master's Voice), is a British music and entertainment retailer, currently operating exclusively in the United Kingdom.
The first HMV-branded store was opened by the Gramophone Company ...
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
The Official Charts (legal name: The Official UK Charts Company Limited) is a British inter-professional organization that compiles various "official" record charts in the United Kingdom, Ireland and France.
In the United Kingdom, its charts in ...
.
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
The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts ...
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
Platinum is a chemical element with the symbol Pt and atomic number 78. It is a dense, malleable, ductile, highly unreactive, precious, silverish-white transition metal. Its name originates from Spanish , a diminutive of "silver".
Pla ...
.
Following a guest presenting stint in 2014, Bars and Melody made a red carpet appearance at the premiere of
CBBC
CBBC (initialised as Children's BBC and also known as the CBBC Channel) is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast children's television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is also the bran ...
show ''
Friday Download
''Friday Download'' was a British children's entertainment television programme, produced by Saltbeef Productions on CBBC. It premiered on 6 May 2011. The final presenting team consisted of Molly Rainford, Anaïs Gallagher, Harvey Cantwell, ...
'' in May 2015. They also participated in the ''Friday Download'' movie called ''Up All Night''. They performed the third ending theme "Unite (Live Forever)" for the anime series ''
Future Card Buddyfight Triple D''. They appeared on
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
's ''
Newsround'' during a week-long series about bullying in February 2015.
2016–18: ''Teen Spirit'' and ''Generation Z''
In 2016, they toured five cities with
Kiera Weathers, a contestant on ''
The X Factor
''The X Factor'' is a television music competition franchise created by British producer Simon Cowell and his company Syco Entertainment. It originated in the United Kingdom, where it was devised as a replacement for '' Pop Idol'' (2001–2003 ...
'', in February and April of that year. The cities included
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
,
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1. ...
,
Bristol
Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...
,
Glasgow
Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...
, and
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...
. 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.
In August 2016 they released their first Japanese album, titled ''Hopeful'' by
Avex Music Creative, including fourteen tracks from the UK albums 143 and Teen Spirit as well as UK and Japanese versions of Hopeful. They toured thirteen cities in Austria, Germany and Switzerland in November and December, opening for German teen singer
Lukas Rieger
Lukas Rieger (born 3 June 1999) is a German singer. He predominantly sings in English.
Early life and career
Rieger was born on 3 June 1999 to Michael and Birgit in Hanover, Hannover, Lower Saxony.
In 2014, he took part in the casting sho ...
.
On 15 February 2017 they released their second Japanese album, titled ''Never Give Up'', for distribution in Asia, by Rhythm Sound, a division of
Avex Music Creative. In April they announced the future release of a new album, titled ''Generation Z'', scheduled for September 2017 as well as the immediate digital release of new song "Faded" on 14 April.
In April they toured ten cities in the UK opening for the dance troupe
Diversity
Diversity, diversify, or diverse may refer to:
Business
*Diversity (business), the inclusion of people of different identities (ethnicity, gender, age) in the workforce
*Diversity marketing, marketing communication targeting diverse customers
* ...
.
On 27 May they released a song from Generation Z called "Thousand Years," which has a music video with over 28 million views on YouTube as of 14 November 2019. On 1 September they released Generation Z, featuring the said songs along with Not A Love Song, Fast Car, and others. The album has 13 songs in total.
In early 2018, Bars and Melody went on their ''Generation Z'' Tour around Europe. On 12 October 2018, they released a single called "Put Ü First". They also announced and had shows in Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka, Japan in December.
2019–present: ''Love To See Me Fail'', ''Sadboi'' and ''Carpe Diem''
In early 2019, Bars and Melody released a single from their upcoming album called "Love To See Me Fail." Just a few weeks after that, Bars and Melody embarked on their ''Choke Tour'' from late March to mid-May. On 26 July, they released their long-awaited single "Waiting for the Sun" on YouTube, Apple Music, Spotify and dezzer. In late August, they competed on ''
Britain's Got Talent: The Champions'' where they sang ''Waiting for the Sun'' in week 5, getting through the audience vote to the final the following week, where they sang their then-newest song ''Lighthouse''. On 13 September, a German/English song they had a feature on from
Die Lochis calle
Killareleased. On 4 October, they released their single ''Lighthouse,'' which would be on their new album releasing in 2020. They also set to embark on their primarily-UK tour ''Lighthouse'' from October until early November, along with 3 shows in Japan in mid-January 2020. On 6 December, Bars and Melody released via Instagram and a week later on 13 December, they released the single (and their first feature ever) from the album called Teenage Romance, featuring
Mike Singer
Mike may refer to:
Animals
* Mike (cat), cat and guardian of the British Museum
* Mike the Headless Chicken, chicken that lived for 18 months after his head had been cut off
* Mike (chimpanzee), a chimpanzee featured in several books and document ...
. On 7 December, they announced their album ''Sadboi'' would be released in 2020. To finish off the year, on 20 December, they announced ''Sadboi Tour,'' which would be set across Europe, with Charlie hinting it'd be a "world tour" featuring another musical band
Dudes With Harmony, but unfortunately it was postponed, then cancelled due to the pandemic the next year.
On 27 January they competed on ''
America's Got Talent: The Champions''. On 29 January, Bars and Melody took to Instagram to announce the tracklist for their upcoming album ''Sadboi''. The album would consist of 12 tracks which included previous singles "Love to See Me Fail", "Waiting for the Sun", "Lighthouse" and "Teenage Romance". It was originally set for release on 6 March, however, it had to be delayed due to problems with the album shipment. On 6 March, their new single "Ain't Got You" was released. On 13 March, they made a surprise drop with their new song "Invisible". On 27 March 2020, their album was finally released. In late March, they had to postpone their ''Sadboi'' tour due to the
COVID-19 outbreak. Some concerts were cancelled and others were postponed. On 15 January 2021, Bars and Melody released the album ''Carpe Diem'', starting with hit single "Own Ways". The songs are Santorini, Oriental, No Type, Russian Model, Little Missy, and Own Ways.
Members
Leondre Devries (Bars)
Leondre Antonio Devries was born on 6 October 2000
to stonemason Antonio and personal trainer Victoria Lee.
From
Port Talbot
Port Talbot (, ) is a town and community in the county borough of Neath Port Talbot, Wales, situated on the east side of Swansea Bay, approximately from Swansea. The Port Talbot Steelworks covers a large area of land which dominates the south ...
,
Neath Port Talbot
Neath Port Talbot ( cy, Castell-nedd Port Talbot) is a county borough in the south-west of Wales. Its principal towns are Neath, Port Talbot, Briton Ferry and Pontardawe. The county borough borders Bridgend County Borough and Rhondda Cynon Taf ...
, Wales, he has three older brothers—Jacob Lee, Joseph Devries (Joey), the eldest is Ben Lee —and a younger sister, Matilda Devries (Tilly).
Joey was part of the boy band
Overload Generation
''The X Factor'' is a British television music competition to find new singing talent. The eleventh series began airing on ITV on 30 August 2014 and finished on 14 December 2014. Dermot O'Leary presented his eighth series of the main show on IT ...
who participated in the
eleventh series of ''The X Factor''. Leondre Devries has spoken openly about his experiences of bullying for four years before he switched schools.
He attended the Glan Afan Comprehensive School at the time of the ''Britain's Got Talent'' competition.
Previously he rapped solo under the stage name 'Little Dre'.
His father said that Leondre lived with him until he appeared on ''Britain's Got Talent'', and after that has lived with his mother.
Although Leondre said that his father was a stonemason during the contest,
his father now says he is a music promoter.
Charlie Lenehan (Melody)
Charlie Lenehan was born 27 October 1998 in
Frampton Cotterell
Frampton Cotterell is a large village and parish, in South Gloucestershire, South West England, on the River Frome. The village is contiguous with Winterbourne to the south-west and Coalpit Heath to the east. The parish borders Iron Acton t ...
in
Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean.
The county town is the city of Gl ...
. He lives in London. He has a family that consists of his mother, a school cook; his step-father, a businessman;
he has a younger sister, Brooke. His mother, Karen James, is a cook in
Thornbury at
Gillingstool and New Siblands schools.
Charlie took up singing at the age of 11 when his schoolmates invited him to join a band.
He has been attending the
Winterbourne International Academy since he was 11, and was interested in drama, music, and engineering at the time of the competition. He returned to school the first day after the ''Britain's Got Talent'' finale.
He also welcomed a baby girl into the world with his current girlfriend, Gabby Smith.
Lawsuit
Antonio Devries, Leondre's father, threatened to file a suit against the group in March 2016, saying that he wrote ''Hopeful'' due to troubles that he was having in his life.
He claims that he helped promote the boys until their ''Britain's Got Talent'' contest, is unhappy that the boys are moving away from the anti-bullying theme, and claims that their management overworks them. He says that he does not have any issues with Bars and Melody,
but he took over the boys' social media accounts and posted music from his son Joey and other artists he represents until the management team regained control of the accounts.
The management team, who Devries says is the root of the problem, have stated that the boys wrote "Hopeful". A spokesperson for the boys says that they are happy with their career and management team and do not feel exploited or overworked.
They also said, "Bars and Melody are sorry to hear that legal action is being threatened and they hope it will
eresolved quickly and amicably."
Discography
Studio albums
Extended plays
Singles
As lead artist
Promotional singles
References
External links
Official websiteOfficial YouTube pageOfficial Facebook pageBars & Melody fan Photos Leicester 2016
{{Authority control
Britain's Got Talent contestants
Musical groups established in 2014
British musical duos
British hip hop groups
Hip hop duos
2014 establishments in England