Music In Our Schools Month® 2025: "United Through Music" Song Bracket

This year the theme for Music In Our Schools Month® (MIOSM®) is "United through Music". I have been doing a "musical March madness"-style song bracket, where students listen to different songs each day and vote on their favorites, for several years now, and for the last several years I've tried to tie the songs into the annual theme NAfME chooses. To connect with this year's theme, I've decided to choose songs that are a fusion of 2 or more genres or musical styles.

This is the earliest that NAfME has ever shared their theme for MIOSM® so I am so happy to have had more time to figure out the songs I wanted to use and share them with everyone! I admit I was a little disappointed at first when I saw the theme, though, because I did an entire playlist of songs focusing on unity/ togetherness in 2023 for their theme that year, "Music Is All of Us"! If you didn't use my song bracket that year and you'd rather focus on lyrics with themes of unity, you can find that list of songs here. But then I had the idea to look for songs that bring multiple genres together, and I am so excited about all the new artists and songs I discovered in the process of putting this list together! I can't wait to share these with my students and see what they think. 

As I have done the last few years, I'm going to be setting up google slides files with the songs for each day embedded in the slides so that classes can vote in their homerooms. If you want to see how I organize the logistics so classes can vote every day regardless of whether they have music that day or not, check out my 2021 MIOSM post (and definitely let me know if you have any questions, I'm happy to help). Doing it in slides was such an easy way to have all the songs organized and make it easy for the homeroom teachers to report their class' vote rather than having to email me every day! I don't have the rights to share the song files, but you can make a copy of my slide templates and add the audio files yourself by clicking on the image below (it will automatically ask you if you want to make a copy)- here is a tutorial on setting it up in slides using the templates:

In my song lists each year I try to include songs from different genres and time periods, representing artists of different backgrounds and including different languages, and this year is no different. You'll find a blank slide template in the slides file linked above: I use that to show the lyrics in their original language and in the English translation for songs that are not in English. 

Here are the songs I'll be using in this year's bracket (in no particular order):

1. The Times They Are A-Changin' by Flogging Molly Celtic Punk

2. Reclamation by Brandee Younger Classical/ Hip-Hop/ Jazz/ Funk

3. Eso Que Tu Haces by Lido Pimienta Afro-Colombian/ electronic

4. Freedom by 12 Girls Band Chinese/ Turkish/ Pop

5. Storm by OTYKEN Indigenous Siberian/ Pop

6. Stomping Grounds by Bela Fleck and The Flecktones Bluegrass/ Jazz

7. Sally in the Garden/ Molly Put the Kettle On by Abigail Washburn and Friends Chinese/ Indian/ Appalachian

8. Upside Down by Funmilayo Afrobeat Orquestra Afrobeats (West African/ Jazz/ Funk)

9. Blue Flame by Simon Shaheen Arab/ Western Classical

10. Colour War by Ayanna Witter-Johnson Classical/ Jazz/ Pop

11. Living in the Past by Jethro Tull Classical/ Rock

12. Samba Em Preludio by Esperanza Spalding Samba/ Jazz

13. Inion by Afro Celt Sound System Colombian/ Korean/ Hindustani/ Campeta

14. Legends in the Making by Black Violin Classical/ Pop

15. Indigo by Hypnotic Brass Ensemble Jazz/ Funk

16. Saraiman by LADANIVA Armenian/ Romanian/ Jazz

17. Heyran by Mehdi Khosravi Iranian/ Classical/ Rock

18. MORENICA by Light in Babylon Isreali/ Turkish/ Iranian Alternative Ethnic Folk

19. LongMa by Nini Music Taiwanese Folk Metal

20. Brighter Days Come by Patty Gurdy Hurdy-Gurdy Folk-Pop

21. Járbă, máré járbă by Baba Yaga Romani/ Klezmer

22. Frantic Feathers by Archy J Celtic/ Bhangra

23. Mežāby Tautumeitas Latvian Folk/ Electronic

24. Compañera by MËSTIZA Spanish Folk/ Electronic

I'm excited to see how the students respond to this year's playlist, and I'm curious to see which song wins out in the end! What are your plans for Music In Our Schools Month® this year? What are other songs that fit this theme? I'd love to hear more suggestions in the comments below- I'm sure there are plenty more great ones out there. If you're looking for more ideas to use for MIOSM, here are all my posts on the topic.