I think I get stanning now. More specifically, I think I stan Chloe Bailey (who stylizes her name “Chlöe” as a solo artist). As one half of the duo Chloe x Halle, she and her younger sister have been on the rise as pop R&B performers, protégés of the queen herself, Beyoncé, who has brought the duo on tour and signed them to her management company, Parkwood Entertainment. Not a bad cosign to have on your CV. If Bey seems like an easy comparison, tell me what other artists are able to maintain such precise and dynamic vocal control while also performing highly physical choreography.
Keeping that in mind, I was a little surprised when I heard Chlöe would be performing at House of Blues during the Boston stop on her tour. I was even more surprised when I arrived at the show to discover that – though there were plenty of fans in attendance – it was definitely not a packed house. I was expecting it to be obnoxiously crowded. Don’t get me wrong, I love my personal space. But knowing how amazing this young woman’s voice is, I was confused. Is Chlöe not as big as I assumed?
It was a question that stayed on my mind the entire show. In fact, as the show went on, it was only further cemented in my brain. I knew that she was an excellent singer, but sometimes great studio singers are not great live singers. Chlöe is very clearly both, so that couldn’t have been the reason. I started to wonder in maybe it’s because I was seeing Chlöe – instead of Chloe x Halle as a duo – that might be the main contributing factor as to why there are still plenty of tickets up for grabs for the remaining shows on the In Pieces Tour.
When I’ve seen press and performances it’s always been Chloe and Halle. If one of the sisters has gained notoriety independent of the duo, it’s Halle, who is playing Ariel in the upcoming live action remake of Disney’s The Little Mermaid. Without a high profile starring role, is the older sister still trying to cement her status independent of the family duo? While she’s had a few on screen roles, her acting forays have been limited.
She has mainly stuck to music: writing, producing, recording, performing. She’s got those four tenants of musicianship down. Currently, it seems, she’s trying to stand on that foundation while build an independent identity for herself. While Beyoncé is certainly an easy benchmark to keep in mind, after seeing Chloe perform through the songs on her debut solo album In Pieces, I left noticing more parallels to where Janet Jackson was at the dawn of the 90s: a publicly-perceived “good girl” who seeks to shake the wholesome family image she has had to live up to stepping into her own power. For Ms. Jackson (‘cause I’m nasty), this period in her career led to her self-titled album, which is still considered one of her best LPs and received critical acclaim especially for the way the singer took agency of the image of her sexuality. Chlöe appears to be on a similar trajectory. That’s exciting.
Check out our photos of the show below.
