Cardi B's Pianist, Chloe Flower, Can't Stop Laughing At Your Grammy Memes
By Emilee Lindner
It only took a number of minutes for
Cardi B’s efficiency at the Grammys to go viral on Sunday. Or, more specifically, her pianist went viral.
Chloe Flower, with some divine ferociousness, flew her fingers all over a crystal-encrusted piano and then plunked out the monstrous bass line of “Money,” sustaining intense eye contact with camera the complete time. Inches away, Cardi twerked and her dancers spread-eagled in unison. It wasn’t up until she met up with Cardi at an afterparty that she realized she was right now internet famous.
“Are you on Twitter?” Cardi asked. “Because you’re all over it.” Chloe checked her phone.
“There were all these memes,” Flower told MTV News. “Like ‘Walking into my meeting like...’ Then they would show my face looking at the camera. It made me laugh so hard.”
Overnight, Chloe gained 50,000 followers across social media. The next day, she signed an exclusive deal with Sony Music.
But this moment has been long in the making. She started tinkling the ivories at 2 years old, eventually training at Manhattan School of Music and Juilliard. In 2010, she signed with Babyface’s Soda Pop Records, laying down piano instrumentals. In sessions with the legendary R&B producer, she picked up production skills — “I don’t like to take breaks, and then some of the producers there were taking breaks, so I ended up learning the programming myself.” Since then, she’s produced tracks for Celine Dion, Nas, and 2 Chainz.
On Instagram, you could find Chloe delicately remixing pop songs like Ariana Grande’s “
Thank U, Next” or Drake’s “
Don’t Matter to Me.” She wears designer gowns and five-inch heels. She plays on Liberace’s own glass piano, on cash advance to her by the Liberace Foundation. Once Cardi saw her account, she got the Grammy gig.
Rehearsals had Chloe practicing her fierceness — something that she honed in on by channeling Beyoncé. Cardi inspired Chloe well, as well as the all-female team who made the full thing happen: creative director Tanisha Scott, stylist Brookelyn Styles, and several others.
“Being with [Cardi] in the studio, knowing her work ethic, her work ethic is intense,” she mentioned. “She doesn’t just show up and do it, she’s involved.” As for the
Best Rap Album trophy Cardi took house on Sunday? “She deserves that.”
On the day of the efficiency, Chloe was identically disciplined: She woke up early, hopped into an infrared sauna to sweat for 30 minutes and then began to practice. Because consuming food makes her sleepy and nervous, she feeds very little on efficiency days, only fruits and vegetables. And in the week leading up to the ceremony, she secluded herself, avoiding pre-Grammy shindigs and dinners with companions — no matter how tempting. In her dressing room she requested a keyboard, where she may practice some more. “I attempt to mentally prepare,” Chloe mentioned. “It’s a very regimental form. I can play correctly from residence whenever, although as soon as you’re in front of an enormous audience and the pressure’s there, it becomes real.”
That group kind of mental state is indicative of her everyday regimen as well. She practices at least 10 hours a day, some days up to 14 hours, however not habitually in the gowns you visualize on Instagram. “I’m either in my couture or in sweatpants,” she mentioned. “I don’t, like, own pair of jeans as well as a T-shirt. I’m habitually really dressed up or I’m in sweats. Like
sweats sweats. Like those huge ones.”
Onstage, Chloe wore a Fouad Sarkis gown that was determined opted for so late that it was contained with each other with tape. Originally, she was supposed to wear a leggy rockstar-esque dress, nevertheless that simply wouldn’t do. “When Cardi saw it, she was like, ‘I want her to look more extravagant. And I want her to look more couture. She’s not going to stick out enough in a short dress.’”
“Because the dress was picked so last minute, my stylist was on the floor underneath me, making adjustments like right before the gate was lifted,” Chloe mentioned. “It was close.”
And because Flower works closely with the Liberace Foundation, they loaned her
another piano for the efficiency — the one Cardi danced on. “If Cardi’s going to be twerking on a piano, it should be that one,” Chloe mentioned. “I know Liberace was up there smiling.”
She wrote a vibrant intro to “Money” — one that was fully different from the thunderous track, something to trick the viewer into thinking they were watchin
Have something to discuss? You can use the form below, to leave your thoughts or opinion regarding Cardi B's Pianist, Chloe Flower, Can't Stop Laughing At Your Grammy Memes.