There’s the Midas touch, and then there’s getting signed to the label of Beyoncé Carter-Knowles. Sisters Chloe and Halle Bailey got a call from the artist herself following their cover of her song Pretty Hurts back in 2013, and ever since she has been something of a mentor for the pair, taking them on tour with her in 2016.
It would be doing the prodigious Atlanta R&B duo a huge disservice, however, to credit their rise as solely due to that stellar association. Chloe and Halle – now aged 20 and 18, respectively – won US network Radio Disney’s Next Big Thing award in 2012, and as teenagerswere diligently carving out a name for themselves on YouTube.
Self-produced and self-written, their impressive debut album, The Kids Are Alright, dropped earlier this year. Full of glorious ambition and potent, lilting harmonies (complete with occasional a cappella), it recalled the beguiling beauty of Ibeyi, albeit with more of a pop sheen. The videos for the album – Happy Without Me features Moonlight’s Ashton Sanders – have been opulent too, full of that same beauty and unapologetic sense of power.
“Our parents always taught us … not to be afraid to dive in to do something that may not be considered things for little girls to be doing,” Halle said in an interview with Vulture earlier this year. “Once we put our foot in the door and shove it open, it’s exciting for us to see people’s reaction. They realise that we can do this.”
