March Music Madness 2016 is just around the corner. We are ready for another fun competition where songs go head-to-head to decide a winner.
This years bracket features 16 songs and we’ve broken them down to 4 categories: Bachata, Pop, Rock/Urbano, and Salsa. We avoided songs from our favorite artists Juanes and Jesse & Joy, which we listen to quite frequently. The tricky part was also to find new, hip songs with appropriate lyrics. We avoided any songs with overly sexual lyrics.
Here is our bracket:
Your are welcome to use our bracket. During the competition we will be tweeting out the day’s bracket; we shall see if Twitterverse agrees with my students’ pick. I will also be using the hashtag #MarzoDeMusica to tweet about the competition, which you are also free to use. If you want a template to create your own 12 or 16 song bracket, you can download our updated Foreign Language Music Lesson, which includes editable brackets as well as 15 activities to use with the songs. (If you already own it, be sure to re-download it to get the updated version)
Use the Billboard charts to pick current hits
Also, if you are looking for a music bulletin board to go along with your Bracket, check out this post about using album covers.
You can also check the Top 50 Billboard Latin Songs of the week to pick current songs in your classroom. Make sure you preview the songs as some may not be appropriate. The list includes top songs from all genres including Urban, Pop, Norteña, Bachata, and more.
Have your own brackets? Share them in the comments! Also, which song from our bracket above do you think will win? Post your picks below!
SpanishPlans.org 
Great idea! Hate to be that guy, but “Tu sonrisa” (along with most of Elvis Crespo’s catalogue) is actually merengue rather than salsa.
And Ríe y Llora is actually cha cha, not salsa. But I still love the idea and will use it in my class!
I absolutely LOVE this idea!! Thank you!!
This is wonderful! I LOVE this idea! What’s the format you use for kids to vote?
I just have my students vote in class by asking them which of the two songs they like.
I know other teachers who set up Google Survey forms.
Do you do this each day? Once a week? just curious!
I typically do one bracket per day (so two songs) in the first round and then I take a vote in class. Although due to state testing, on some days I did 2 brackets per day.
For the next rounds, I put a youtube playlist of the winners on my class website and had students fill out a google survey to calculate their votes.
What do you do with the winning song? Do the students get to listen to it more in class?
It gets the honor of being the champion! Students will probably request to hear it (although they will have other favorites from the tournament that they request. Some kids will likely listen to it outside of class.
I made a “Winner’s Pennant” and hang up in my classroom:
https://spanishplans.org/2016/03/18/march-music-champion/
Do you have a bracket completed for March, 2017?
We are working on it! Stay tuned to our main page for a new post… or subscribed to our blog by entering your email in the upper right corner to be notified of new posts!
Thank you.