While many artists dream of singing on a Grammy-winning album, 12-year-old Arykah Brown has already turned that dream into reality. Arykah, a seventh grader at Spec. Rafael Hernando Middle School, was invited to sing background vocals on the children’s album “Brillo, Brillo!” by Lucky Diaz and the Family Jam Band. When the album won a Grammy in February 2025, Arykah received an official certificate from the Recording Academy recognizing her contribution to the project.
“It's really exciting! I'm like really proud of myself, and I'm really proud of everyone who participated with me!” she said.
In recognition of her outstanding accomplishments, Arykah was selected to recite the Pledge of Allegiance at the Socorro ISD Board of Trustees regular meeting in December 2025.
Arykah’s journey into the spotlight began when her mom, Elvira Stallings, enrolled her in the Paso Del Norte Fine Arts Academy to help develop her artistic talent and set her on a path toward a career as a professional performer.
“You know a child is serious when you ask them what they want to do when they grow up, and the only answer she gives us is, I want to be a performer,” Stallings said. “She’s just an explosion of art and creativity. So, I figured PDN was a good place for her to start experimenting to see what it was that she really liked to do.”
At PDN, Arykah stepped into the world of theater. There, she played Rafiki in “The Lion King Jr.” and the Pilot in “The Little Mermaid Jr.”, where she experienced the thrill of performing on stage.
“I was like the first person you saw when they opened the curtain,” Arykah recalled from being on stage in both productions. “It was very fun but nerve-racking.”
She continued her training at Sound Stage 9, a music academy and artist development studio in El Paso, where she got the chance to sing on “Brillo, Brillo!”
“It was my first time in the studio, and it was really cool,” Arykah said. Her sister, Queen Stallings, also sang on the Grammy-winning recording. “I was like a little nervous because I didn’t know how this was going to go, but it went really good.”
At Hernando Middle School, Arykah continues to shine both academically and artistically. She is a straight-A student taking all honors classes, a member of the National Junior Honor Society, and has demonstrated her leadership skills in the Q-BEC school competition. She was also the only sixth grader to travel with eighth graders on the WorldStrides trip to Boston, which offers educational tours of the city. Additionally, she is learning to play the piano to help her compose her own music.
“I'm proud to be a Cavalier because our school is A-rated, and I believe it's a really good school, from academics to the community. I'm just proud to be part of it,” Arykah said.
Arykah’s artistic training has also enhanced her problem-solving and presentation skills. She showcased her presentation skills at last spring’s Gifted and Talented (GT) Showcase, where she delivered a self-driven research project on various diseases. She continued to hone these skills this December at the SISD district science fair, where her project focused on how clothing influences a person’s perception of another.
“The best thing about being a creative person is that basically you can do whatever you want in anything that you create because there's really no rules to it,” Arykah said.
She credits her artistic training for helping her become a better collaborator and team player in the classroom, a quality her GT teacher, Fernando Peinado, has seen her develop over the last couple of years.
“She is unafraid to tackle challenging topics while remaining open to learning from mistakes and others’ viewpoints. She has a rare ability to raise the level of discussion in ways that invite participation rather than shut it down,” Peinado said.
Outside the classroom, Arykah performs under the stage name “CHRIZ-TI” and plays bass guitar and sings in a band called Small Things.
With a Grammy nod already on her resume and a growing list of academic and artistic accomplishments, Arykah has a promising future ahead.
“I feel very lucky because I know not a lot of other people get as many opportunities as I do, but I feel like I deserve it because I do work really, really hard to do the things that I do,” Arykah said.