Chloe Bailey (left) and Halle Bailey of Chloe x Halle. (Photo by Leon Bennett/Getty Images for Essence)
Chloe X Halle, the R&B duo made up of sisters Chloe and Halle Bailey, will sing the National Anthem at the 2017 NFL Draft. The duo first became YouTube sensations before they were discovered by Beyonce Knowles in 2013.
can’t wait to sing the nat’l anthem for the NFL draft today!! don’t forget to tune in tonight @espn/@nflnetwork 😉😘💃🏽✨🎶
Chloe is 18 years old and will turn 19 on July 1. Halle turned 17 in March. You can follow the duo on Twitter and Instagram.
Here’s a look at Chloe X Halle.
1. The Duo Performed at the NFL Women’s Summit Before Super Bowl LI
The 2017 NFL Draft isn’t the first NFL event Chloe X Halle has performed at. The league picked them to perform at the 2017 NFL Plays For Life Women’s Summit before Super Bowl LI. It was the second edition of the event after it was introduced before Super Bowl 50 and billed as “an interactive experience for young women to discuss how to achieve goals, prepare for challenges, and utilize tools critical for personal and professional development.”
The event came just before the group drop their first mixtape, The Two of Us, in March. Despite running just over 25 minutes, the record packs in 17 tracks.
In April 2016, Chloe X Halle released their first EP, Sugar Symphony, on Beyonce’s Parkwood Entertainment label.
2. Chloe X Halle Were Discovered by Beyonce After Their Cover of ‘Pretty Hurts’ Scored 8 Million Views
Chloe and Halle were discovered in 2013 after they recorded a cover of “Pretty Hurts,” a track on Beyonce’s self-titled 2013 album. When the video reached 8 million views and went viral, the two found out that Beyonce her self was listening. It’s now past 13 million views on YouTube.
Beyonce was so impressed that she signed the two a contract with Parkwood Entertainment for six albums, Oyster Magazine reports. The two were signed at the same time as Sophie Beem, another singer who impressed Bey.
Before getting signed, Chloe and Halle posted other Beyonce covers, including “Love On Top” and “The Best Thing I Never Had.” They also posted covers of Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep,” Rihanna’s “We Found Love” and Taylor Swift’s “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together.”
3. Beyonce Picked Them as Her Opening Act for the European Leg of the Formation Tour
Beyonce wasn’t just interested in signing Chloe and Halle. She decided to mentor them and shape their career. She chose the two Atlanta natives to be her opening act during the European log of the Formation world tour in 2016.
“We’ll be opening up for Beyoncé on the Formation tour in Europe! We’re so excited,” Chloe told Entertainment Tonight. “We’ve been working so hard and we can’t wait to go on tour with her.”
“She is just such an amazing person inside and out. Being around her is just amazing because she’s just such a teacher to us, especially as young girls who are coming up in this music industry,” Halle also told Entertainment Tonight.
The two also appeared in Beyonce’s Lemonade visual album during the song “Freedom.” They’re seen alongside Serena Williams, Zendaya and Amandla Stenberg.
“She just taught us to continue to stay true to who we are, trusting in our ideas and what we believe in,” Chloe told Entertainment Weekly about Beyonce in another interview. “Just how poised she is and how gracious she is…it’s just wonderful to look up to that. We love her!”
4. Michelle Obama Is One of Their Fans, Inviting Them to SXSW & the White House Easter Egg Roll
The Bailey sisters don’t just have Beyonce’s ear. They also have former First Lady Michelle Obama’s. At the 2016 White House Easter Egg Roll, Obama invited them to sing “This Is For My Girls” and “Fall,” from their Sugar Symphony EP. They were also an opening act for Obama when she delivered a keynote address at the 2016 SXSW in Austin, Texas.
The two were at SXSW again in March 2017, note CNN, and attended a women’s march in Los Angeles the day after President Donald Trump’s inauguration. Chloe told CNN that she’s noticed more young people being politically active, including themselves.
“I think that also comes with the age of social media and Internet. People are raising their voices through their really cool channels or their pages to really share what they believe in,” Chloe told CNN. “I believe it’s more than just doing a hashtag. You should go out there and do the women’s march and the march for equality.”
5. They Like to Write & Produce Their Own Music
Although it was covers that got them to this point in their careers, Chloe and Halle hope that they can have success with their own songs. In a Rolling Stone interview, the two said their father taught them how to write music when Chloe was 10 and Halle was eight. The first songs they were wrote were “horrible,” Halle told Rolling Stone, “But as time went on, they turned into something beautiful.”
Chloe told Rolling Stone that, once they moved to Los Angeles, she started producing more serious work. They’ve even recorded in their own home studio.
The two also learned how to play their instruments thanks to YouTube tutorials. Halle learned how to play guitar, with her skills on display in the song “Drop.” The track impressed Beyonce so much that she pushed them to go into that new direction.
“A couple years ago I started producing more seriously, and my sister and I would do everything together,” Chloe told Rolling Stone. The sisters recorded their EP and many of their originals in their Los Angeles home studio. “I was so happy to have someone there to tell me what sounded good and to give me a confidence booster because trusting in yourself is important.”