Being the support slot can be a tough gig in any case, but when you’re the opening act for the most beloved First Lady in living memory, kickstarting the event can be overwhelming. That’s the task musical sisters Chloe and Halle Bailey were faced with at the White House’s annual Easter Egg Roll 2016 — a hot ticket in any social circle — singing “This is For My Girls”, the anthem of Michelle Obama’s “Let Girls Learn” initiative. The girls — easily mistaken as twins — are just 17 and 19, but can call the likes of Obama and Oprah Winfrey their comrades. “We wake up and pinch ourselves, we feel like we’re in a dream every single day,” Chloe says, escaping any disillusions of fame and well aware of their unique position. “We’re so grateful. We can’t wait for what’s to come, we’re just looking forward to getting better as people.” Elevated deservedly alongside these legendary icons as influential young black women with rallying cries and positive messages to share, the sisters rub shoulders with America’s most powerful women of colour, all while recording music, filming YA-friendly sitcom Grown-ish and constantly throwing looks (usually enviable, modern variations on noughties attire).

A firm foundation in the spotlight is kinda a side effect when you’re the proteges of Beyoncé. The Atlanta-born sisters fell into stardom when Queen B herself caught their YouTube cover of “Pretty Hurts” in 2015 and later signed them to her Parkwood Records. “Being a part of Parkwood and under Beyoncé we literally make all of our music in our living room and we have creative freedom,” Chloe gushes earnestly of their mentor. The confines of home is where they developed their five song 2015 EP “Sugar Symphony”, featuring the soft, tear-jerker “Fall” and Gen Z, independent girl-boss anthem, “Drop”. “Baby I get sick of you/You’re that same old tune/I don’t ever wanna hear you again” they languidly half sing, half rap over a bass-heavy 808. Becoming so intrinsic in the Parkwood family, they went on to feature in Bey’s game-changing “visual album” Lemonade, alongside Serena Williams, Zendaya and Amandla Stenberg, yet again, prophetically placed with black women who are dominating their respective industries.

Despite their ages, Chloe and Halle are aware of the bravery it takes to embrace being an unapologetic black girl, being “magic”. To them, black girl magic is “being comfortable and confident with the skin you’re in, rocking it and letting your inner light shine outwards”. This celebration of the self forms in their music, a testament to the appreciation of their identity. In their February release, “The Kids Are Alright”, they sing over weighty orchestral sounds, “If I’m in the mood I get as ratchet as I wanna / Turn around and show you, I could bless you with some culture.” The pair preach a “better mind state” and “love for everyone” on the track, with “Call it how we see it we a genius generation” the lyric that rings truest. “We always have a difficult time putting our music into one genre,” explains Halle, but whether it’s leaning further towards jazz, pop or RnB, you can bet there’s a social commentary.

“With everything going on today, it is hard to be quiet about it,” Chloe affirms. “I am happy to be a part of this generation where people are speaking out.” The sisters refuse to shy away from getting knee-deep into contentious issues — whether it be the Dreamers Act or Black Lives Matter — becoming poster girls for the conscientious hashtag generation that can rally an army’s worth of opinions in a matter of seconds. But, with great public support there is also public backlash, Chloe and Halle attribute their strong resilience to poisonous trolls to “growing up in the YouTube era”. They reference one of the key lessons Queen B herself gifted them, the “no scroll rule”. “You can have loads of positive comments,” they explain, “but the one negative one will mess you up, so out of sight, out of mind.”

Chloe and Halle’s addition to the cast of Freeform sitcom Grown-ish has flung them further into the limelight. “We first started acting even before music,” Chloe explains, “the very first thing I auditioned for was The Fighting Temptations role.” (In the 2008 film she played a younger incarnation of the lead Lilly, who in turn, was embodied by Beyoncé). “Last year at BET awards,” Halle continues of their inclusion in the Black-ish college spinoff, starring Yara Shahidi, “we accepted an award on behalf of Beyoncé that Yara was presenting, the Grown-ish executive producer saw us and from there it just clicked, conversations turned into table reads.” They describe the show as “game-changing, fun and needed right now for this generation”, and play budding track star twins, Sky and Jazz who are learning to deal with the exposure that track brings, whilst maintaining professional composure. Art imitating life, much?

This year, the sisters’ united CV is only set to get thicker. They play Coachella this April, headlined by mother Bey — who’s fulfilling her 2017 set after it was put on hiatus for her pregnancy with Rumi and Sir — and their debut LP dropped today. “We are so excited because our album is now complete,” they say hungrily. “We can’t wait for the world to hear it, we’ve been working on it for three years.” Masters of all trades, Chloe and Halle’s precision planned projects are finally aligning and with them, they can claim titles as peers of the women who mentored them. Magical in every way.

Taken from the Spring 2018 Issue; out now and available to buy here.