Chlöe and Halle Bailey are on the September/ October 2022 cover of Essence magazine where they dished on everything from their personal lives to their solo ventures. The singing siblings began gaining traction online with covers of other artists' songs on YouTube when they were teenagers. But it was their cover of Beyoncé’s “Pretty Hurts” that led to a record deal with Queen Bey herself.
Now as grown women, Chlöe is 24 and Halle is 22, the duo which makes up Chloe x Halle, are focused on having individual success separate from each other while still supporting one another. Halle will be starring in the live-action remake of The Little Mermaidand The Color Purple and Chlöe has a solo debut album that will reportedly be available this year.
Halle has also been letting fans get a glimpse into her romantic life. The “Do It” singer is dating rapper PonaticMadeDDG and revealed that she was in love.
"I grew up being on YouTube and would always see the young Black creators and was constantly inspired by them. He was one of them," Halle said about meeting DDG. "I completely forgot about him. But then I saw that he was dropping music, and I really gravitated toward this one song. Coincidentally he messaged me — and the rest is history."
While Chlöe is single, she has been linked to Diggy Simmons and more recently Gunna. However, she is now only focusing on her album and shared that her music reflects who she really is and not what society has viewed her as. "It's everything that I've been going through, all the tearing down, people underestimating, telling me I can't do it — all of those things have gone into the music," Chlöe said.
"The album is me picking myself up and talking myself out of any little place or space that the world has tried to put me in, that people and personal relationships have tried to put me in, and even [doing that to] myself."
Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for Nickelodeon
The world has often compared Chlöe and Halle especially since they have created their separate identities. The eldest sister has been getting the brunt of the criticism due to her risque photos and dance moves that have been seen as “doing too much.” Others have deemed Chlöe as simply confident in her body. However, that’s not always the case for the Grown-ish actress.
"As much as people think I'm so confident, 80 percent of the time I feel the complete opposite of that," she said. "That's why I put so much of myself into my music. That's where I feel like myself and where I belong in this life — whenever I'm onstage. The girl I see and I watch sing back, she intimidates me. I'm like, 'Who the hell is that?'"
Halle, on the other hand, is proud of how much they have grown over the years and is loving their grown woman weight. "Finally, I'm 22 years old, and some of the weight is sticking, and I'm happy about it," The Little Mermaid star said. "Chlöe has the booty, and I'm getting some cleavage."
And while she may be the younger sister, she is overly protective of Chlöe and her loved ones. "If you've got a problem with so-and-so, then we've got a problem," she said. "I'm a fire sign ... If I love you and somebody crosses you, it's over. That's been my stance since I was young."
She also explained that that is why she’s able to connect with her The Color Purple role so much. Halle plays Nettie in the upcoming musical film. “She’s so much like me, because she has that fire inside of her,” Halle said.“When it comes to defending her sister—as the little sister, I kind of connected my own experiences for the role.”
Period, sis.
The internet has witnessed Halle defending Chlöe on more than one occasion and their sisterly bond has been looked at as goals. Here are some of their best sisterly moments.
Halle Defended Chloe Against Matthew Knowles
In March 2021, Matthew Knowles responded to the Beyoncé and Chlöe comparisons calling them “insulting.” Halle seemingly hit back at the mega manager by tweeting. “How amazing is it that @ChloeBailey is already an icon,” she said. “I ride for my sister till the enddd okayyyy,”
Chlöe and Halle Cried on Instagram Live After Being Apart for So Long
While Halle was filming The Little Mermaid in London back in January 2021, she jumped on Instagram Live with her sister Chlöe and they shared a tearful moment together.
"Because I've always been near my sister," Halle said while tearing up. "So, this is like really—it's different for me, not having you by my side, you know?"
.@ChloexHalle get emotional on Instagram Live while being apart from each other:
— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) January 29, 2021
“I miss you... I’m really really proud of you, and you’re making me so proud over here.” pic.twitter.com/YU4zRRgKKY
Chlöe Gave Halle Words of Encouragement When Having Imposter Syndrome
Chlöe takes her big sister’s duties seriously and makes sure that she is encouraging Halle especially when she is having days where she feels less confident. Halle shared how the “Treat Me” artist empowered her one day while dealing with imposter syndrome.
"It just feels so surreal to be doing meetings [with] all these people that I'm such big fans of and sometimes you feel like you have imposter syndrome," said Halle in an interview with E! News. "Chlöe was lifting my spirits up the other day like, ‘No, you're meant to be in there too.' I think that's just so powerful and so special to have someone like her in my life where she can just remind me of that."
Halle added, "My sister empowers me every day just by being herself and watching how hard she works," Halle said. "I think that I've always had a great example in her growing up of what I would like to be and what impact I would want to have on people.
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Featured image by Rodin Eckenroth/Getty Images
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A Goddard College graduate, who earned an MFA from Pratt Institute and was awarded an honorary doctorate from Marymount Manhattan College, Mahogany offers unapologetic realness with a side of grace and empowerment. "I started touring locally. I started creating chat books so that those poems will go in the hands of the people who were sitting in the rooms," she shared.
"And then I started facilitating poetry workshops, so I used my chat books as curriculum. And that, in turn, allowed me to further invest in my art and show the community and people who were hiring me that it wasn't just a one-off, that it's not just, you know, a fly by night—that I am invested in this art as much as I am invested in your community, in your children's learning, in our growth."
Mahogany has a special way of moving audiences, and her superpower sparks shifts in perspective, post-performance introspection, and strengthening of community bonds, especially among Black women. (One can undeniably recognize her gift for arousal of the spirit and mind merely from her listening to her insights from the other side of a Google Hangout call. I can only imagine the soul-stirring, top-tier sensory encounter when watching her perform in person.)
In this chat with xoNecole, Mahogany reflects on sustaining a creative career, the aftermath of writing a banned book, and using poetry for both healing, community-building, and activism.
Anthony Artis
xoNecole: What are three key things that have laid the foundation for a sustainable creative career for you?
Mahogany L Browne: What has helped me is that I'm willing to go in being an expert at knowing poetry and knowing the way in which art can change the landscape of our lives, not just as a poet, but also as a poetry facilitator. How you move through classes, those things are mastered, right? So when I go into another space that's maybe tech-heavy, I don't mind learning and being, you know, a student of the wonder of how we can make this magic, work together.
Two, you’ve got to know how to pivot. Sometimes we say, ‘Alright, this is what my life is going to be. I'm going to be a New York Times best-selling author. I'm going to, you know, have an album that's Grammy-nominated. And then, say you get dropped from your record label. That doesn't mean you can't make an album anymore. You can also still create an album that can be submitted to the Grammys. So, what does a pivot look like as an artist who doesn't have an institution behind them? Pivot being a student of the wonder.
Relationships also really help. How do I serve the community? And in turn, that tells me how the community can show up. For me, I have long-standing ties with a community that will outlast my one life. So, what does it mean to create space where these relationships can develop, can be nurtured, can be rooted, can be cultivated? Creating space—it happens through relationships.
xoN: With today’s economic challenges, what does your current creative process look like, and what are you working on?
MB: I’m always thinking five years ahead. I just reviewed the pages for two children’s books and recently released a YA novel. I’m drafting an adult fiction manuscript now.
Anything I create is founded with the root of poetry, but it can exist in captions. It can exist in commercials. It can exist as a musical. So that's where I’m at now.
xoN: You started performing "Black Girl Magic" in 2013, had an acclaimed performance of it via PBS and the work went on to viral success shortly after. Talk more about the inspiration. And what do you think about the continued relevance more than a decade later?
MB: I wrote it as a rally cry for the mothers who had been keeping themselves truly in harm's way by, you know, being a part of the community right after the death of their child or their loved one. They are usually mothers of victims of police brutality—and just seeing how they showed up in these community spaces, they are devout to the cause but obviously still grieving.
"I wanted this poem to be just a space of reclamation, of joy and of you, of your light, of your shine, of your brilliance, in any which way in which you fashion. Every room you enter is the room you deserve to be in. What does it mean to have a poem like that that exists?"
And the first time I did the poem, the Weeping that occurred, right? It was like this blood-letting of sorts. The next time I performed it, I'm moved to tears because I'm seeing how it's affecting other women who have just been waiting to hear, ‘You belong. You deserve. You are good. We see you. Thank you, despite everything that they said to make you regret being born in this beautiful brown, dark-skinned, light-skinned, but Black body.’
Black women are the backbone—period. Point blank. And so, that that poem became a necessity, not just to the fortitude of Black women in the community, but like you know, in service of healing the Black women.
xoN: One of your books was banned at a school in Boston, and it was later reinstated due to parental and activist support. What was that experience like?
MB: Well, I think it happened because they were racist. That's it. Point blank. The reversal of it was empowering, right? I realized, oh, I thought we just had to sit here and be on a banned book list. But no, parents are actually the leaders of this charge.
So to see that, the parents said, ‘Nah, we're not gonna let you take this book out of my baby’s school just because it's a Black kid on the front saying, ‘Woke’ and they're talking about being a global citizen. They're talking about accountability. They're talking about accessibility. They're talking about allyship, and you don't want them to have compassion or empathy or have even an understanding, right? So no, we rebuke that, and we want this book here anyway.’ To see that happen in that way. I was, like, reaffirmed. Absolutely.
xoN: You recently organized the Black Girl Magic Ball at the Lincoln Center in New York. Honorees included author and entrepreneur Rachel Cargle and National Black Theater CEO Sade Lythcott. What impact did it have and what expanded legacy do you hope to leave with your creative works?
MB: I was really interested in not celebrating just the book, but celebrating the community that made the book possible. And so I gave out five awards to women doing that thing, like, what does it mean to be a Black girl in this world?
I just thought it was gonna be an amazing time. Everybody's gonna dress up—we're gonna celebrate each other. And boom, I then realized that it responded to like a gaping hole. There was a missing thing for Black girls of all walks of life, all ages, right?
"It's very intergenerational. That was intentional to come together and celebrate just being us."
You have all these instances where just being you is either the butt of a joke or it's diminished and not worthy of a specific title in these larger institutions. So what does it mean to just to be loved up on and celebrated?
It felt like a self-care project at first. You know, for the first couple of years, folks were coming and they were getting that sisterhood. They were getting that tribe work that they were missing in their everyday lives.
I love the Black Girl Magic Ball because we got us. If I go out with a bang, they'll remember that Mahogany worked her a** off to make sure all the Black girls everywhere knew that she was the light. We are the blueprint.
For more information on Mahogany L. Browne, her work, and her future projects, visit her website or follow her on IG @mobrowne.
Featured image by Anthony Artis
