For the sixth year in a row, Logan High School French students are participating in the international Manie Musicale, a yearly competition of French-language songs modeled after the NCAA March Madness. Ahead of the actual “tournament,” students from over 5000 schools around the world (including all 50 states and more than 35 other countries) access a playlist of 16 songs and fill out brackets trying to predict which songs will be the most popular with students around the world. Once the tournament starts, students vote for their preferred songs through the month of March, ending in April.
Manie Musicale has been organized by two middle school French teachers in Maine, Stephanie Carbonneau and Michelle Fournier every year since 2017. They organize it for teachers around the world via a website, and through collaboration on a Facebook group. Songs are pre-screened by a committee of teachers for age- and school-appropriateness, with artists in a variety of genres from a variety of French-speaking countries around the world. Students listen to the songs, discuss their opinions of each song, study lyrics for meaning and or language use, discuss geography, musical genres, etc. all in French appropriate to their level of French study.
