At 8:20 in the morning, music filters out the door of a classroom. Inside, students wait as the video asks, “Who will win? Gims, or Lubiana?” The students hold their breath as the video goes black for a moment. Then, a winner appears–Gims, who survived the first round of voting in Manie Musical.
Created in 2017, Manie Musicale is a French twist on March Madness–imagine the rounds, the excitement and the competitiveness, only in French and without basketballs. Throughout the country, 16 songs in French or by Francophone artists are paired against one another in several rounds. Students listen to the songs, then vote on the one they prefer. Eventually, there is a final winner.
While Manie Musicale has been going on for some time across the country, French teacher Allison Kerr has been credited with bringing the contest from Brookline Public Middle Schools to the high school by the request of her students.
“I first heard about Manie Musical because my students were asking for it,” Kerr said. “Their previous teacher had done it, and they loved it, and I was really intimidated by it because I didn’t know what they were talking about.”
Kerr taught at K-8 Brookline Public Schools for five years before moving to the high school. She said that she didn’t know how to make it meaningful for kids of all proficiency levels, especially because of the varying range in language skills students have.
“In sixth grade, it’s a lot of ‘I like it, I don’t like it, I think it’s good, I think it’s bad, I think it’s interesting, I think it’s annoying,’” Kerr said. “By the time you get to an advanced French class, you could have students presenting on the cultural significance of the instruments used in the songs. Or you could have them talk about the complexity of identity that’s represented in a song where a singer was born in Belgium but has family from Cameroon.”
Kerr found that her students began to look forward to March, which has been known to be a long and weary month for students. Kerr said she had never heard a student wishing for March to arrive sooner until after she introduced Manie Musicale.
“It was something that got students excited about Francophone culture and opened their eyes to artists from other Francophone countries,” Kerr said. “It helped with learning where those countries are, and sort of expanding students’ understanding of what the Francophone world is.”
When Kerr came to the high school, she wanted to continue Manie Musicale after seeing the good responses she was getting.
“My eighth graders, when they were choosing languages for the high school, would always ask me, do the high school teachers do Manie Musicale? That was one of the first things that they would ask,” Kerr said. “So when I got here at the high school, I was really excited to say, ‘well, my classes are going to do it.’”
Kerr then showed her colleagues Manie Musicale and how she used it to develop her students’ language skills, but made sure not to pressure other teachers who already had curricula planned. Though skeptical at first, French teacher Laura Gurry became motivated to get involved.
“We knew it existed before, but none of us were really into it because it seemed like a really big thing to wrap our heads around and we didn’t quite know how to do that,” Gurry said.
Gurry said she found that students like having something different to start class every day, even if it’s just a little change in the classroom.
“I start my classes with it most days, and we read some slides about who the artists are and they’re very accessible for all languages,” Gurry said. “French I kids are understanding it. My three advanced kids are obviously understanding it.”
In Gurry’s class, students listen to the songs and vote, but Gurry notes that each French teacher employs their own version of Manie Musicale.
“If they pick a song that has a verb tense in it that we’re learning, I’ll create an activity where kids can listen for the verb tense and have to write it down when they hear it,” said Gurry.
Junior Meeka Dagieli said she likes doing Manie Musicale in Gurry’s class and listening to the song options. She feels that it’s a good activity to do since there are no breaks in March.
“I really like comparing the songs with my friends and classmates, and then we get into arguments about which one’s best,” Dagieli said. I’ve definitely learned some new vocab words, which is nice and helpful.”
Teachers can get intimidated by the process of entering Manie Musicale, according to Kerr, especially since over 7,000 schools have entered the competition. However, she said that most teachers support one another in the journey.
“There’s this massive community of teachers now that are all saying, ‘Oh my God, you should try this.’ It’s the gift that keeps on giving. So the more years you do it, the more ways you figure out how to engage your students with it,” Kerr said. “Over 35 countries are participating. Every state in the United States has at least one school participating. It’s a phenomenon.”
Gurry said she enjoys seeing all the different kinds of music her students like. She found that when voting, her taste tends to differ from students who listen to ‘mainstream’ music.
“I think that’s part of the fun of it,” Gurry said. “Oftentimes, a junior year class will vote very differently than a freshman year class because their musical tastes have matured and evolved, and they’re listening to different kinds of music.”
