8-year-old wins her 1st Grammy alongside her dad
An 8-year-old girl from Maryland is a Grammy winner, alongside her dad.
Aura V, 8, and her dad Harold Simmons II, known to audiences by his stage name, Fyütch, won the Grammy for best children's music album for their collaboration album "Harmony" at the 68th Annual Grammy Awards on Sunday night.
The win makes Aura V the youngest Grammy winner in history, according to the Recording Academy, which presents the Grammys.
The father-daughter duo accepted the award at the 68th GRAMMY Awards Premiere Ceremony at the Peacock Theater, held just before the televised awards at the Cryto.com Arena in Los Angeles.
ABC News Live's Perry Russom spoke to the duo ahead of the Grammys, with Simmons explaining the inspiration for his career journey from teacher to kids music creator.
"I actually enjoyed it, working with students, showing them how to express themselves through the arts," he said. "And when I started making songs for my students and combining my skills as an artist and using it to songs that could educate them, that's when my career really took off, serving this niche of songs that educate, entertain and empower."
Music runs in his family, Simmons said.
"We're a musical family," he said. "My dad plays on the album. My grandpa was a trumpeter in the Army. So to pass on this musical legacy to her and get this accolade, you know, it's really meaningful."
Simmons told Russom that their Grammy-nominated album began with just one song, titled "Harmony," which was commissioned by the Wolf Trap Center for the Arts in Virginia.
"I wanted this extended metaphor of musical harmony and harmony amongst people and with nature. And me and her had just kind of started making songs together. So I had the idea of, 'Why don't we hop on the song together?'" Simmons said, referring to his daughter. "And that started our journey and the songs just kept getting bigger. We started shooting videos, they started going viral. Before you know it, we had enough songs to make a whole album."
Aura is still a full-time third-grader, and Simmons still maintains an independent music career of his own. They said the musical collaboration has allowed them to grow closer.
"We get to spend lots of time together, go out, we get to go on lots of trips. We once went to Lollapalooza, we went to Las Vegas, and now we're back here in LA, and we're gonna have lots of fun," Aura V said.
Simmons added, "It's, like, parenting, career, it's kind of all mixed up in one pot, and it's beautiful."
ABC News' Sabina Ghebremedhin contributed to this report.
