March Madness brackets are a tradition during the college basketball championship. But here, German teacher Sandra Zemaitis does it a little differently. During March, German students participate in a German music competition similar to March Madness: German Music Madness.

Sixteen songs from the German music charts enter the competition. Students compete by listening/watching the music video of two songs and then picking which one they think will win. After students vote on their favorite, they get points based on whether they chose correctly, similar to an actual March Madness bracket. Zemaitis even created a bracket on the bulletin board outside the classroom so that all students could see the progress and listen to the songs. “I put the bulletin board up hoping that students that walk by will find it interesting and maybe use the QR code to see the video,” said Zemaitis. 

Zemaitis originally got the idea from a German teacher Facebook group last year. Students enjoyed it so much that she decided to do it again. “Somebody created this last year and shared it with the teachers, and I decided to do it. The students loved it so much last year I decided to do it again this year,” said Zematis. German student and junior Eveelyn Short said, “It is a lot of fun. It makes the month more enjoyable. I look forward to doing it…I have a lot of new songs on my playlist now.” 

Like a regular March Madness, there is a strategy to pick the perfect bracket, and freshman Connor Moak has figured it out. “I chose based on other people when we were watching the videos,” said Moak. Moak had a near-perfect bracket and was one of the best in his class. “We have got everything except for one wrong; we lost 15 points. It was a pretty big hit,” said Moak. 

Friday, Apr. 1, was the final day of the German Music Madness competition, with the German artist Allein by Querbeat as the winner. 

Here is the link to the video: Querbeat – Allein (Offizielles Video)