Musical March Madness in Language Classrooms

Musical March Madness (La Manie Musicale or La Locura de Marzo), an international competition, was celebrated in Mrs. Cidzik and Mrs. Kostolecki’s classes this year at Whitesboro High School, but with a twist.

Students had to complete their own “brackets” with Francophone or Hispanophone artists and songs. Each week, students learned about new artists from various French and Spanish speaking countries. Then they listened to the two songs that were at battle for the day. Whitesboro students, along with other students worldwide (over 5,000 schools worldwide participated in 2024!) would then vote for their favorites to go on to the next round.

Special reveal videos showed which artists would move on and students kept track of “points” on their brackets. The competition became more intense as the rounds continued and the students voted for their favorite artists. There were cheers, there were tears, videos were sent in to be included in the reveals, and students even interacted on X (formerly Twitter) with some of the artists themselves.

Students also completed projects and created artwork alongside the comp prizes, which were awarded for the brackets with the most points and the most unique brackets.

Manie Musicale (in French) and Locura de marzo (in Spanish) was a crowd favorite this year and it helped bring some madness and enthusiasm to our language classrooms.  Ask your student what their favorite song was this year!