“Have Mercy”
On July 1st R&B artist Chlöe Bailey posted a video on Tik Tok of her with the video captioned “this is 23…HAVE MERCY COMING SOON”. The sound has gone viral on Tik Tok getting over 1 million uses.
@chloebaileywashere this is 23… HAVE MERCY COMING SOON 🍑🙌🏽
About 2 months later on September 2nd after a short delay, Bailey then posted another teaser on Tik Tok announcing the release date of her song “Have Mercy” with the caption reading “countdown to have mercy beings now. 9/10”.
@chloebaileywashere countdown to have mercy begins now. 9/10 😈💕 pre-save now before it drops. link in bio.
Then on September 8th two days before the release Bailey posted again another snippet of not only the song but of the music video with the audio having more background vocals making it sound more full and complete, keeping us on the edge of our seats only wanting more. The caption read “2 MORE DAYS til #havemercy drops”.
@chloebaileywashere 2 MORE DAYS til #havemercy drops 👀 here’s the official video trailer 💕 9/10 12am EST
Then finally on September 10th Chlöe released her debut single “Have Mercy”. This was Bailey’s debut solo song as she has released songs with her sister Halle Bailey prior as they both formed the duo known as Chloe x Halle.
The sisters got their start posting covers of songs on YouTube at the young ages of 17 and 16. On December 22, 2013, the girls uploaded a cover of them singing “Pretty Hurts” by pop icon Beyoncé. The video skyrocketed not only catching the attention of 11.5 million people but the queen herself. 2 weeks after the video’s release Beyoncé reached out to the girls and signed them to a $1 million deal with her label Parkwood Entertainment for a total of 6 albums.
After releasing 2 EPs “Sugar Symphony” and “The Two of Us” in 2016 and 2017, the girls finally released their debut album “The Kids Are Alright” in 2018. Having hit songs like “Grown”, “Warrior (from A Wrinkle in Time)”, and Happy Without Me album received positive praise from many.
In 2020 the girls released their most anticipated album yet titled “Ungodly Hour”. The album had hits such as “Do It”, “Forgive Me”, and “Ungodly Hour. With “Do It” receiving 60 million views on YouTube the girls later released a remix featuring Doja Cat, City Girls, and Mulatto. Their song “Ungodly Hour” peaked at #71 on the Billboard Top 100 chart as the album was also nominated for best R&B album at the 2021 Grammys.
In January of 2021 Halle Bailey was cast as Ariel and started filming Disney’s live-action “Little Mermaid” as filming just wrapped in July and is set to come out in May of 2023.
As Chlöe spent some time away making music with her sister, she realized that she still wanted to make magic even if meant doing it solo. In an interview with MTV News, she says “Music is so therapeutic for us, I couldn’t just stop creating, so it was just inside of me… Music high key really saved my life and it was really pouring out of me in a way I really couldn’t contain. And as I was creating it, I started seeing it visually in my head, I started coming up with mood boards, all of that, and it kinda started creating within itself”.
As the wait was finally over Chlöe’s song skyrocketed. With the music video getting 24 million views on YouTube and trending #1 on music it also peaked at #3 on the Hot R&B Songs Chart as well as charting in the top 40’s on the Billboard Hot 100 its debut week. Only 2 days after the song’s release, she performed the song LIVE at the 2021 VMAS as the video performance also started trending #1 for music on YouTube. The song became such a hit she also landed a Beauty Secrets Video with Vouge as well as getting to perform the song LIVE on The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon.
In an interview with MTV News Chlöe talks about the dark sorority theme with a twist to her music video and the artistic meaning behind it. She says “I really kind of wanted to make it all about ass, but in an artistic way. And I think it’s so cool how women have this incredible power, how they can leave men in a trance with their bodies and their spirits and the way they carry themselves. So, it’s literally luring in men and turning them into stone, so it’s like a modern-day Medusa.” She also talks about how important it is important for women to have agency over their own bodies and to have a black woman be behind the vision of the video.
Chlöe Bailey has a promising career ahead of her and we cannot wait to see what comes next for the talented artist.
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Brendan Hindle is a senior at Dakota High school. He loves doing musical theatre and works as a swim teacher. He hopes to challenge and explore his writing...
