YORK, Maine — Manie Musicale is a program that two Maine teachers started six years ago here in Maine, and it's one that has expanded to more than 20 countries.
It consists of 16 popular French artist's songs, just like a March Madness basketball bracket. Participating schools and students each week listen, learn, and vote on these Francophone songs until there's a winning song.
This year's best is from a Franco-Canadian hip-hop rapper of Haitian descent, Le Flo Franco.
Stephanie Carbonneau, who teaches at York High School, and Michelle Fournier, who teaches at Falmouth Middle School, are the teachers behind the program. This year, they managed to get Le Flo to come to Maine to give the students a concert at the York High School auditorium. Seven hundred students from 11 school districts were able to attend.
"A dream come true! Lituation! Fire, fire, it's fantastic," the teachers expressed in excitement. "It really is a dream, we've been hoping to get Manie Musicale singers to come to Maine and to other schools and do concerts because it really gets the students pumped!"
"It ended up that Le Flo Franco got the most votes out of any other artist, and for a reason," York High School student Liam Pulsifer said. "His songs are pretty good."
"Music is an important part of our students' lives. It's part of their personality and what they do in their free time, so to incorporate that in the classroom encourages them, Fournier said in French. "And they're very, very happy to do music in class and to have fun with the French language."
Le Flo has a unique style where he incorporates rap, electronic dance music, and afro beats in his tunes.
"In terms of favorite song, it would actually be 'Danser avec toi,'" Pulsifer said.
"So we get the kids hooked on the sound, but through it all we are talking about Francophone language," the French-Canadian artist said.
Le Flo said students don't realize how practicing lyrics of French songs, for example, is a way to improve their French.
"Just to see the kids be so engaged in French and just vibing to the music and having an interest has been like the greatest gift," Le Flo explained.
"We are not far from a French-speaking country," Carbonneau said. "We have a history, a long history here in the state of Maine with French speakers, and we are honoring that heritage, reviving that heritage. We now have a lot of new Mainers who are French speakers."
Le Flo wanted students to take away one important message.
"Your French can open doors, and that's one of my goals with this concert: to show them that French can open doors for you. And so that's kind of my goal," Le Flo said in French. "Therefore, if we have more languages in our pockets, we have more opportunity, and a little more money in your pockets in your future, so why not?"
"It's a pretty cool language," Pulsifer expressed. "Might as well try and figure out what French culture is like and how to speak it. Maybe I can travel there and learn more about them."
Registration for 2024's Manie Musicale is already up and running. Click here to learn more.
"It's a beautiful thing, the power of music to bring people together," the teachers said. "And to do that in French on top of it is a French teacher's dream."
Manie Musicale has grown so much that now 62 Maine schools have the program in their French curriculum. Two thousand schools in the U.S. are participating, and there are also participants from more than 23 countries.
Here's a look at the French song winners from previous years.