Beyoncé's New Protégées Prove the Power of Black Girl Magic

Nowadays, if you’re trying to make it big in the music industry, you pretty much need a co-sign. The bigger the better. If you can land one from one of the biggest stars on the planet, that’s at least an automatic gold record, right?

Our guess is that, with a thumbs up from Queen Bey, 16- and 17-year-old Chloe and Halle Bailey‘s ascent to the top will be a glorious one.

With a YouTube cover of Beyoncé‘s “Pretty Hurts,” the ladies first caught Bey’s attention, garnering over 13 million views on YouTube. From there, the ladies received an email from Parkwood Entertainment inquiring about their managment and the rest is history. (They signed a $1.5 million recording contract with Parkwood Entertainment last fall.)

Continuing to cover major hip-hop and and R&B songs has catapulted the ladies to not just the recent release of their first single, “Drop,” with Parkwood Entertainment, but to being featured in Elle alongside their boss lady herself.

In that cover story, Queen Bey opened up about the creative freedom she enjoys in being her own boss. Through that, she’s able to bring more promising young Black female talent to the top of the male-dominated industry.  But as she told the magazine, she’s learned to do away with the perfectionism that once held her back.

“It’s not about perfection. It’s about purpose. We have to care about our bodies and what we put in them,” says Bey. “Women have to take the time to focus on our mental health — take time for self, for the spiritual, without feeling guilty or selfish. The world will see you the way you see you, and treat you the way you treat yourself.”

It doesn’t get more #BlackGirlMagic than that.

Watch their debut video for Chloe & Halle’s very first single below.

(Photo: Gary Miller/Getty Images)