Bradley Stoke singer fancied to win Britain’s Got Talent final

Britain's Got Talent finalist Charlie Lenehan.

A secondary school student from Bradley Stoke and his pal from South Wales are the bookies’ favourite to win the final of ITV’s Britain’s Got Talent show, which takes place on Saturday (7th June).

Charlie Lenehan, 15, a student at Winterbourne International Academy, along with his friend Leondre Devries, 13, who together form the rap/singing duo Bars and Melody, are currently 5-4 favourites with Ladbrokes to scoop the competition’s £250,000 prize and the likelihood of a lucrative recording contract.

Although the national media are reporting that Charlie is from Frampton Cotterell, The Journal can reveal that the rising star has been living in Bradley Stoke since before Christmas.

The duo shot to fame in the fourth semi-final of Britain’s Got Talent on Thursday (29th May), where they topped the public vote with their own version of ‘I’ll be Missing You’ (originally recorded by Puff Daddy/Faith Evans/112) to earn of one eleven places in Saturday’s final.

The popularity of the act is witnessed by the fact that a video of their Britain’s Got Talent audition in February has been viewed more than 29 million times on YouTube, while the duo’s Facebook page now has nearly 200,000 fans and their Twitter feed over 139,000 followers.

Charlie told The Journal he first sang in public at a school concert in 2011, before going on to upload his own videos to YouTube from early 2013.  His singing partner Leondre came across some of Charlie’s work and the pair started chatting online, which led to them meeting up to practice together from last September.

In January, they applied to Britain’s Got Talent and attended an audition in Manchester in February, where Simon Cowell used his ‘Golden Buzzer’ to send them straight to the semi-final of the competition.

Charlie, who is currently studying for GCSEs in music and drama, says his school has been really good about allowing him time off, emailing him work so that he doesn’t get behind with his studies.

Looking forward to Saturday’s final, and asked who the duo’s main rivals are likely to be, Charlie names second favourites Collabro, a group of classical singers who he says are “really good, but rivals nonetheless”, adding: “It’s a waiting game. I’m not really sure how it will pan out.”

The final of Britain’s Got Talent (Series 8, 2014) is broadcast live on ITV1, on Saturday 7th June, from 7pm to 9.30pm.

Photo: Charlie Lenehan, pictured outside his Bradley Stoke home last weekend.

Britain's Got Talent (Series 8, 2014) finalists Bars & Melody.

Above: Charlie (left) with Bars and Melody partner Leondre Devries.

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