Bars & Melody have recently made a big splash in mainstream media with their heartfelt audition performance in “Britain’s Got Talent’s”. The duo consisting of rapper Leondre Devries ("Bars") and singer Charlie Lenehan ("Melody") form a unique singing/rapping combination, and add to the fact that they are just 14 and 15 respectively, have a very bright future in the music industry.
Background
They met in September 2013 via Facebook, after Lenehan (Wales) had seen many of Devries' (England) covers as a solo rapper. Lenehan said to Devries, "Do you want to meet up?" in January 2014, so, accompanied by their parents, they met in late January and decided to form the duo.
The Performance
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!" Bars & Melody received the golden buzzer from Simon Cowell and went straight through to the live semi-finals. Their audition has been viewed on YouTube more than 50 million times. They eventually finished third in Britain’s Got Talent.
The Single
Despite not winning, Bars and Melody signed a £500,000 initial one-single deal with Simon Cowell's record label, Syco. The music video of their song "Hopeful" was released on 27 July and went straight to number five on the UK Singles Chart.