Most high school graduates have a carefree summer before heading off to college, but Halle Bailey from Chloe x Halle and her older sister Chloe are getting straight to work: They’re opening for the North American leg of mentor Beyoncé and her husband JAY-Z’s On the Run II tour. Not to mention the two are series regulars on Freeform’s show grown-ish starring Yara Shahidi and will be performing at the MTV Movie & TV Awards on Monday night (June 18) in Los Angeles.
Before their superstar résumé was flooded with achievements, the sisters covered “Pretty Hurts” by Beyoncé, a four-minute YouTube clip that has since garnered more than 15 million views from when it was first published in 2013. Two years later, they signed with the “Formation” singer’s label, Parkwood Entertainment.
Chloe x Halle, now 19 and 18 respectively, chatted with Billboard in the days leading up to their MTV Movie & TV Awards performance about expressing themselves through acting and singing for a blended marriage of talent the two will offer and be honored for at Monday night’s show. See the performance for yourself on the MTV Movie & TV Awards, airing at 9 p.m. ET on MTV.
How do you guys feel about performing at the MTV Movie & TV Awards?
Halle: We are so excited to perform at the MTV Awards. It’s going to be a blast, we just can’t believe that we’re given this opportunity.
You have a background in movies. Tell me how that transition from movies to music took place.
Chloe: We first started acting and expressing ourselves that way and then music kind of took over. And we’ve always kind of had a love for both. For me, Chloe, I loved theater ’cause you can combine acting and singing and dancing into one because it’s all just a different form of expression. And I’m really grateful to the universe that it all kind of worked with grown-ish coming. We’ve always been such dear friends with Yara and I’ve always loved her. It’s been cool actually doing a TV show with your favorite people ever. So for that, I’m really, really grateful and I can’t believe we got nominated.
What is it like being with all those people like Luka [Sabbat], Francia [Raisa], Trevor [Jackson] and the rest of the cast producing the show?
Halle: Being a part of the show and being around such beautiful people, it really doesn’t feel like work. It just feels like you’re hanging out with your best friends and we’re so happy that we get to be on a show like grown-ish that really shows the reality of what’s going on. It’s youth live, what’s actually happening. Of course, when you get to a new environment and especially if you’re not the majority in a college, you start to feel isolated in some way and insecure and I love how the show kind of just embraces college and those insecurities and teaches that it’s okay to have them and then at the end of the day, you’re beautiful no matter what. So I’ve just been really grateful and we just love being a part of the show that we can really relate to.
What can fans expect from season 2 of grown-ish?
Chloe: Well you’ll definitely see all of us together again. I hope I get to see Luca and Zoey’s relationship blossom and we even dive deeper into who Jazz and Sky really truly are and all of that great stuff. We start filming in September, so I’m excited and looking forward to see what the storyline will be.
Halle, you just graduated high school, and both of you have been confirmed as openers for the North American leg of Beyonce and JAY Z’s tour. Can you talk more about that — graduating high school and being openers for Beyonce, who helped discover you?
Halle: We are just so happy to have been able to go through these experiences right now in our lives at the age we’re at. I’m very fortunate to have just graduated high school and be able to go on tour with Beyonce again and all these experiences, they feel like they’re dreams until I see pictures of it like the “Formation Tour.” That felt like a dream until I saw the pictures from it. We’re constantly pinching ourselves in amazement of how blessed we are to be able to have such a mentor as Beyonce and learn from her every night as she performed.
The 2018 MTV Movie & TV Awards will air Monday (June 18) at 9 p.m. ET/PT from the Barker Hanger in Santa Monica, California.