What does an 8-year-old do after winning a Grammy? Fractions

Aura Valentina Simmons, aka Aura V, may be the youngest-ever individually named Grammy winner, but in her third-grade classroom, she uses the same blocks to figure out fractions as everyone else.

“I don’t really know about Grammys,” Pragat Patel, Aura’s desk mate, said with a shrug this week.

“That’s the energy I like — chill,” Aura said, giggling.

In the classroom, decorated with hand-drawn posters and colorful, large block letters, the real clout is victory in the online fraction game 99math.

In that realm, Pragat usually triumphs over Aura. But in the front pocket of his blue-and-white shark backpack, underneath tissues and some Pokémon cards, Pragat carries a signed autograph from Aura. He plans to put it in his room.

Aura and her dad, Harold Simmons II, who uses the stage name Fyütch, won music’s biggest prize in February. Their album, Harmony, won the Grammy for best children’s music album. Before Aura’s win, Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s daughter Blue Ivy Carter had been the youngest individual Grammy winner.

“I would say it’s the biggest experience I’ve ever had in my whole entire life so far,” 8-year-old Aura said.

The 13 songs, which took over two years to write and record, follow themes of love, positivity and inclusion. In “I Am Love, I Am Light,” Aura sings, “I love myself, I love me.”

“I like to sing about that because it’s empowering,” Aura said. “It gives hope to people.”

Zaiya Willis agrees. Sitting a few desks away from Aura, Zaiya is Aura’s best friend and frequent winner of the 99math game.

“[Aura] inspired me to build my own dreams and follow them,” she said. Zaiya’s dream is to be an engineer, but after the 8-year-old saw a TikTok of Aura winning the Grammy, she added winning that accolade to her list of aspirations.

Accepting a Grammy Award: “Somebody, pinch me” 

Before heading to school on a recent Tuesday, Aura and her father, wearing matching pops of yellow, practiced in a basement studio at their home in Charles County, Maryland. Aura stays with Simmons during the week because he has a more flexible schedule than her mom, who is a teacher.

Aura pulled out a violin while Simmons warmed up on the piano. Behind them, a 2025 Lollapalooza poster with their names next to Olivia Rodrigo and Tyler, The Creator hung on the wall. To the right, the envelope from their Grammy win sat on a shelf.

The pair fell into perfect sync and belted out their album’s title track, “Harmony.”

“I kinda knew it was gonna happen,” Aura said about their Grammy win.

Aura wore a gold headband and yellow and green beads in her hair to match her yellow dress. She sat on a couch in the studio, and she slapped a pillow with excitement as she talked. The beads clacked as she moved her head.

“I’m just like, ‘We did it. We just did this,'” Aura said, remembering being onstage. “‘Is this a dream? Somebody, pinch me.'”

On the red carpet in Los Angeles in February, Aura and Simmons also wore matching colors — this time, lavender. Aura said her fluffy skirt and matching sparkly handbag got lots of attention.

“Aura was the princess of the Grammys,” Simmons said.

Simmons said he was “freaking out” before the announcement, but Aura had a different concern.

“‘Can you get me some popcorn?'” Simmons recalled his daughter asking. “I am frozen and I say, ‘Girl, I’m so sorry — I cannot move right now.'”

When they finally got to the stage to accept the Grammy, Simmons spoke about the power of children’s music.

“Children’s music is more than a genre,” Simmons said. “It is an intention of artists who have dedicated our crafts to educating, entertaining and empowering the next generation, which is our highest calling to care for our children globally.”

Now, Simmons reflects on what has happened since that history-making moment: “Seeing the impact that it’s created — our father-daughter relationship, being a Black dad and daughter — has really put into perspective how important representation is in what we do.”

The road to the Grammys

Simmons never planned to get into children’s music.

His journey started when he was 7, and he performed as a young orator in his hometown of Gary, Indiana.

After college, as he pursued a full-time music career, Simmons taught music production and poetry to young students.

Then, when Aura was around 6, she asked to use the microphone and play on the keyboard with her dad.

“She took to it and thankfully had a gift for it,” Simmons said.

Their first song as a duo, “I Am Love, I Am Light” in 2024, “went crazy,” he said.

Simmons had a new goal: making music that captured the life he wanted to model for his daughter — with friendship and love — while still “making dope beats,” he said.

For years, Simmons sought success in the music industry. He finally found it with his daughter.

“I really don’t think the Grammy would have happened without her,” Simmons said.

Now, he wants her to have her own solo career. But Aura is adamant.

“I want to still perform with Daddy,” she told her dad, leaning in to hug him.

So now what? Friends and fractions

Since winning the Grammy, “everything has changed,” Aura said. She feels like she has two lives: one of autographs and fans and one of math games and buddies at school.

“I prefer … all the lives,” Aura said, throwing her arms into the air.

In between the Grammys and an upcoming trip to Nashville, Tenn., Aura eats oatmeal with strawberries and sugar in the morning with her dad, talks with classmates about what’s for lunch and catapults her body down the playground slide.

“I wanna learn too. I’m an ordinary girl, just like everybody else,” Aura said.

The constant attention — interviews, autograph signings and trips — can be challenging. In the lunchroom on Tuesday, other third-graders swarmed Aura for autographs.

“I can’t do everyone at the same time — I only have two hands,” Aura shouted as she scribbled furiously.

When Aura left lunch, half of her food was uneaten.

Simmons said he prepared Aura for the attention, but he’s mindful of her achieving success at a young age.

“The energy from people, none of that is real and might not last,” he said. “She doesn’t know what it’s like to lose. She doesn’t know what it’s like to not get these big things.”

“What’s real is how we feel about what we created … and how we spend our time and what our character is as people,” Simmons continued.

So, Aura’s classroom has become her haven. It’s full of 8- and 9-year-olds who mostly don’t understand the Grammys.

“Third grade is the absolute best,” Aura said — except for learning division, which Aura said she often responds to with a blank stare and a “blink, blink” of her eyelashes.

Aura’s teacher, Aleyah King, calls Aura one of her “Velcro” students. During some of King’s lunch hours, Aura likes to sit with her. She hasn’t changed since winning the Grammy, King said.

“She has not let any of the ego go to her head,” King said.

When King told her class she was feeling under the weather one day last month, Aura brought her a handwritten note.

“It was just a little card that she made that said, ‘I love you and I hope that you feel better,’ and honestly turned my day around,” King said.

What the future holds for Aura V and Fyütch

This weekend, Aura heads with her dad to Nashville to the National Museum of African American Music, where they will be honored and their Grammy outfits will be displayed.

They’ll also perform at the We Are Nashville Festival with Nashville public and charter schools.

Aura said she’s looking forward to the trip, mostly for the food and a family reunion, which will have even more food.

“Aura’s perk of traveling is food,” her dad said. “She’s a foodie.”

As for future plans, Simmons will be back on tour this summer, with Aura joining him for a few dates.

But for now, back at school, Aura had some different, but also important, third-grade business to take care of: a game of hide-and-seek during recess. Shrieks and laughter punctuated the air as the kids raced around the playground.

Then, a whistle.

“Awww, come on. Why does recess have to be over already?” Aura grumbled along with her classmates.

Turns out, recess ends for everybody, even history-making Grammy winners.

NPR’s Mallory Yu contributed reporting to this story.