For Timothy Lim, AP German student and senior, March Madness extends past the TV screen. Throughout his five years in German, he has participated in Music March Madness (MMM), a single-elimination bracket competition where 16 foreign language songs compete in one-on-one matches until a champion is decided. Lim said Music March Madness has helped his German improve.

“(MMM) has helped me learn slang I otherwise wouldn’t know,” Lim said.

Chimdalu Nwafo, AP French student and senior, said Music March Madness in French was played similarly to how it’s played in Lim’s German class.

“In French I, II and III we would make a bracket and listen to the songs and determine the winner based on the songs we liked the most,” Nwafo said.

With the first two rounds of the 2026 March Madness tournament averaging over 10 million viewers, and with over 26.6 million brackets created on ESPN alone, March Madness is a cultural staple. Lim and Nwafo are only two of many to participate in an educational activity modeled after the NCAA tournament. 

German teacher Laura King said this is her fifth year using MMM in her classes.

“I kind of stumbled upon Music March Madness through social media and learned about it and then thought ‘this would be awesome,’ King said. “I thought my kids would enjoy it, so then I started doing it myself.”

King added that her activities regarding MMM get deeper and more complex as more songs advance throughout the bracket. 

“For the first 16 songs, (students) just simply kind of watch the video and they talk about very surface level qualities, such as how they feel about it, whether they like the rhythm or the beat. Once we get to the final eight, however, then the kids listen to the song with the words, and I ask them what the main themes are,” King said. “In the final four, they have to use actual lyrics to support why (a song) is better than the others. Every time they go deeper they have to talk about aspects of the culture of the video that they see, and explain why this video is stronger than the other video they’re competing against. “

Lim said along with helping with listening skills, MMM has helped him formulate arguments in German.

“The bracket structure makes us engage with all the songs because we’re trying to articulate in German why we prefer one song over another,” Lim said.

Lim added that MMM has helped him better understand German culture. He said he discovered one of his favorite songs through the bracket.

“I discovered ‘Farben leuchten Schwarz’ from March Music Madness, and that’s one of my favorite songs, in German or English, to listen to,” Lim said.

Nwafo said he had a similar experience to Lim. Nwafo said he’s added songs from MMM to his spotify playlist.

“I’ve added one song to my playlist before, it’s called ‘tu es la,’” Nwafo said. “There’s a few more that I’ve liked and listened on repeat to.”

While MMM helps students with listening, speaking and better understanding of cultures, King said one of the strengths of MMM is its ability to keep students engaged.

“In German specifically, we have a higher male population than a female population, and a lot of the male students enjoy the competition aspect of gameplay. With those demographics and also March Madness happening simultaneously, this idea that “I called out the correct thing and it advanced” kind of gets kids more engaged versus just listening to a song I may have picked out for them,” King said. “So the gamification of the activity definitely helps the students stay engaged a little bit longer.”

Nwafo said the gamification of MMM helps him stay engaged, and gets him excited for the actual NCAA tournament. 

“Music March Madness builds excitement for actual March Madness since it usually comes out a bit before the tournament and we continue until Spring Break, when the Final Four play,” he said.

Although King said she finds the gamification of MMM fun for her and her students, her favorite thing about the activity is its ability to showcase diversity across a single language. She said MMM helps students understand there are a variety of countries and cultures who speak the same language.

“One of the best things about (Music March Madness) is that they make it a point not to incorporate just German artists, but they have German, Swiss and Austrian artists, which is really kind of cool. And I know other languages like French do that by incorporating Belgian and African artists,” King said. “So that’s a lovely conversation piece we can have in class.”