How It Works

Cantarama is a classroom music tournament that brings Spanish to life through songs, creativity, and community. Each year, students around the world listen, vote, and celebrate Hispanic culture — all while having fun.

The 16 songs are already chosen. This year's bracket will repeat next year if you'd like to keep things the same for your class, but we'll also add a new bracket with new songs if you want to mix it up.

Objectives

Celebrate Hispanic culture and language through music.
Introduce students to new artists and songs in Spanish.
Build excitement for language learning by connecting classrooms across the globe.
Encourage creativity and self-expression through student contests.

BATALLA CANTARAMA: The Bracket Challenge

The 2026 tournament kicks off February 2nd and runs until May 5th.
Each week, two songs battle head-to-head.
Voting opens Monday–Thursday, and results are revealed on Friday.
The last 3 battles (the semi-finals and finals) are faster (2 school days each) because

some schools get out in early/mid May. And because by the final 4, students will know the songs!

The tournament continues until the final winning song is crowned on Cinco de Mayo.
Students / classes can make their own bracket predictions or just vote and follow along.

Details / Rules:

Students listen to the weekly songs in class (or at home) and vote for their favorite to advance.
Each student may vote once per battle.
Teachers can decide whether to show the official music video or a lyric-only version.
Voting is hosted securely on the Cantarama site.
Check out the practice vote to see it for yourself

Ways to participate / levels of engagement

Every classroom is different — so Cantarama is flexible!

Pick the track that works best for you and your students

🌊 Dip Your Toes In

Put the playlist on in the background during the week.
Pick a “Música Miércoles” (or any day you choose!) to play the weekly battle songs.
Use it as a warm-up, brain break, or quick conversation starter.

🎵 Sing Along

Incorporate the lesson activities for each song to dive deeper into the lyrics and culture.
Build connections by discussing the themes of the music in Spanish or learning about the artists.
Maybe focus on something different each round (example: first round, just listen and give opinion, second round songs learn about the artists or take a deeper look at the lyrics, etc)

🏆 Bracket Masters

Have students fill out their own brackets and compete in the national contest.
Run a mini-tournament within your own class or between multiple classes.
Offer small prizes! (In the past, I’ve tracked points in Google Forms, and reached out to a local restaurant who donated gift cards to winners in each class! It never hurts to ask! I also threw a party for the class with the highest average. They bought in big time! Discussing points and averages and voting results was another sneaky way for them to work on numbers!

📅 Long Game

Teach the songs throughout the year so students are already familiar with them by spring.
By the time the bracket begins, your class will be experts in the songs and extra invested.

✨ Bonus Track: Comunidad Cantarama

No matter which level you choose, join Comunidad Cantarama! Your students can enter creative contests (art, writing, video, performance) and have their work featured, with prizes from Latino-owned businesses.

Student Contests 🎨🎤🎶

When teachers join Comunidad Cantarama, their students get access to a series of fun, creative contests that run alongside the bracket. These are optional, but they’re a great way to deepen engagement and give students chances to shine.

The Student Contests for the songs:

Smash Doodle – Pick a song a visually represent it, focusing on certain lyrics and vocab, etc.
Visual Dictionary – Student-made illustrations of key vocabulary
Roxxem Challenge – Compete to see who studies the songs most using the Roxxem platform.
Cover Song – Perform your own version of one of the Cantarama songs.
Karaoke Cover – Sing along with the instrumental track and make it your own.
T-Shirt Design – Create a design for the official Cantarama shirt or one based on a song.

Classwide Challenge

Lyric Video Contest – Classes work together to produce a creative lyric video for one of the songs.

Prizes

Finalists are featured on the members-only site for the entire Cantarama community to see and help vote for the winners
Winners receive prizes from Latino-owned businesses, celebrating culture and giving back to the community.

How to Participate:

Contests are open only to teachers who join Comunidad Cantarama.
Membership is $25 per year (or $20 with a subscription), which helps fund the prizes, the site, and donates to a music non-profit in Dominican Republic, the Bachata Academy
This includes access to the contests, lesson materials, and exclusive subscriber resources.

Teacher Resources 📂

Shared Google Drive: Available to all teachers, this is a collaborative space where you can share activities you’ve created and download resources from other educators.
Subscriber Extras: Paid members also unlock additional resources curated for each round of the bracket.