Chloe Bailey is preparing to release his second studio album, Trouble in Paradiseand she’s taking inspiration from some iconic singers including your mentor, Beyonce.
Talking to NYLON In a wide-ranging interview, the 25-year-old shares that her second album has a markedly different sound from her 2023 debut project, In pieces. The first was about “appreciating the sadness of heartache”, while Trouble in Paradise is “a coming-of-age celebration of being a woman and having fun, without taking life too seriously.”
“The story of this album is like when you have a summer fling,” Chloë tells the channel about Trouble in Paradise. “You’re a hopeless romantic and you fall deeply in love. You know it won’t last forever, but you’re too good to really care.”
As an artist who has been very open about how she struggled with the public’s reaction to the fact that she abandoned her image as a child she established early in her career and as comparisons to her younger sister, Halle BaileyBeyond her frustration, Chloë explains how she looked to the barrier-breaking Black artists who came before her as inspiration for her new era.
Her Mentor who broke GRAMMY records is an obvious inspiration, but so is the ending Whitney Houstonstill known as having one of the best voices in the music industry.
Chloë notes that, like Whitney, she was criticized by those who questioned her musical direction. An experience that her mentor, Beyoncé, also lived, most recently with the release of their eighth studio album, Cowboy Carter. The Houston-born musician infamously received pushback for exploiting his country’s roots because she is traditionally seen as an R&B/Pop artist.
“Earlier in (Houston’s) career, when she was making big pop records, she got a lot of criticism for that: being told she wasn’t black enough and wasn’t catering to the base that raised her,” Chloë points out. “Seeing how she persevered and became one of the most iconic and legendary artists we’ve ever seen shows that music has no race, it has no gender, it has none of that. And that’s why I was really proud that Beyoncé did that. Cowboy Carter, because black people originated country music. It’s just showing that the possibilities are endless.”
During an appearance on Latto’s Apple Music 1 show, Radio 777 In March 2023, Chloë admitted that people’s reactions to her sexy solo singles differ from her previous work as part of Chloe x Halleleft her “confused”.
“It’s like I do this, it’s forced, it’s planned. But… I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s because they’re not used to seeing me in that light,” she said. “They grew up with my sister and I since we had our little YouTube baby curls and everything. But it’s like I’m like that. nothing planned or forced about it. That’s just passion showing.”
She noted that although criticism can sometimes “annoy me,” she is happy that “people are talking.”
“I’m like, ‘Damn, you guys just won’t leave me alone. You leave everyone alone and not me,’” she said. “But everything is fine.”
When it comes to her chart-topping mentor Beyoncé, 42, Chloë says it gave her and her younger sister, Halleadvising that sometimes they need to “let the world catch up because you’re always ahead of the curve.”
In 2023, Chloë told ET that the “Break My Soul” singer provided similar help when she was working In pieces.
“Yeah, I know she heard the album,” Bailey shared when asked if Bey had heard it. In pieces yet. “She gave me notes on it before I released it.”
She continued, thrilled to have the mega pop star’s support: “I love her so much. Baby, baby, and I’m so grateful to her for everything.”
And it’s thinking about her mentor’s advice that Chloë says she’s excited for fans to consume Trouble in Paradise. “What I love about my art is that it comes closer to you. When In pieces came out, few people really understood it. But now, a year later, people think, ‘Oh, it’s brilliant! It’s beautiful! It’s amazing!’” she says NYLON. “And if you think about it, that’s how it’s been with me and my sister’s previous work too. No one understands it when it comes out.”
And the singer has a sweet gift for fans who have been eager for the sisters to work together again since they have released several solo projects after his second studio album, Ungodly hour, fell in June 2020.
Chloë revealed that Halle appears in a Trouble in Paradise track, although she did not share the song title. “I got inside my sister’s head and thought, ‘OK, what’s going on in her life right now?’ We both have our own lives,” the singer said, a nod to her sister who was busy with the arrival of son with boyfriend DDG in January. “I was like, ‘Sis, we’re going to be in New York at the same time, I’d love for you to be registered.’ It felt like old times.”
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