Despite the challenges of a year of online learning, Honors French teacher and French National Honor Society advisor Madame Loria helped engage her students in French culture through the Manie Musicale competition, a competition in which French artists submit their music to win a March Madness-style competition. Following the competition, the students continued to show their appreciation for French music by competing with other schools for a chance to meet one of the bands that participated in the Manie Musicale.

The band 21 Juin Le Duo, a group consisting of Manon Pecheur and Julien Guillemin, used their attention from the Manie Musicale competition to reach a greater audience. While many of the Manie Musicale participants used their music to support activism, 21 Juin Le Duo stood out as a band that previously released multiple songs encouraging children and adults to do their part in helping the Earth. Their song released at the competition “Peux Tu Me Dire” focused on environmental awareness.  The competition asked French classes to recreate a version of “Peux Tu Me Dire” that demonstrated their love for the environment.

The competition resulted in a success for Loria’s French students.

“The Facebook committee didn’t have many submissions so far, so I thought we should just do it,” said Madame Loria. She explained that she drew inspiration from a lip-synced song that many of the teachers performed to inspire the students at the start of the pandemic. While the purpose of the video changed, both videos resulted in engagement among students during a time of isolation.

Going along with the lip sync format for the music video, Madame Loria split the lyrics of the song among her classes, with each student lip syncing their chosen line. To accompany the dubbed lyrics, students were also encouraged to create a video that displayed their efforts in saving the Earth, ranging from recycling to engaging with nature. These extra details aided the classes in winning the competition as they provided a unique twist on the song.

As 21 Juin Le Duo selected only the top five best submissions, the majority of the students were surprised to find that they had won.

Students like Lavanya Rao ’23 had mixed expectations regarding their contest entry.

“On one hand, I did see that the effort we put in as a class would be rewarded; after all, we did come together to make a single video in a foreign language. At the same time, I expected a lot of people to have joined considering the general reactions around celebrities and friendly communities like the one the class participated in,” said Rao. 

While the majority of the students did not expect to win, the results only made the win that much more enjoyable.

“I am ecstatic that we were able to win and were given the opportunity to actually talk to these amazing people,” Rao said. Interacting with native French speakers added a new layer to many of the students’ appreciation for the language. 

“I realized that thanks to Madame Loria, as well as our middle school French teachers, we were able to understand and be understood by 21 Juin Le Duo,” said Vinay Menon ‘23. “This realization put the past 5 years or so of learning French into a more practical perspective for me.”

Despite the competition being over, many students are eager to continue their French education.

“If given the chance, I would want to do this again. The opportunity itself and the exposure we got as a result of it is priceless,” said Rao.