Turning off the lights, Spanish 3 and AP Spanish teacher Sarah Voorhees presses play on the music video for “Perdonarte ¿Para Qué?” by Emilia Mernes and Los Ángeles Azules.
Locura de Marzo is an annual music competition for Spanish students that classrooms across the globe are participating in. With a bracket similar to NCAA’s March Madness brackets, 16 Spanish-language songs face off in the competition.
Although the intended voting system is daily, due to the school’s block schedule, classes take longer than other schools to play through the bracket. With hit artists like Bad Bunny, Becky G, Kali Uchis, Daddy Yankee and even Ed Sheeran, this year’s artists have set the bar high, making it a tough competition to win.
While it can be hard to understand the language in faster paces or unique dialects, listening to Spanish music allows Spanish students like me to learn about these cultures and find new songs to add to our playlists. Here are a couple of my favorites:
“Perdonarte ¿Para Qué?” (2024)
Argentinian singer Emilia Mernes and popular Mexican cumbia band Los Ángeles Azules collaborated in May 2024 to make this hit song. Mernes’ powerful voice and the instrumentals pull the song into a trendy pop perfection. The song reveals itself to be a witty request for an ex-lover to get over their ended relationship. With a voice that can rival any modern pop star, Mernes and the band Los Ángeles Azules deliver a memorable pop hit that makes you want to get up and dance.
“TURiSTA” (2025)
Bad Bunny’s new hit album “DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS” is a mix of reggaeton and lyrical geniusness that represents his Puerto Rican identity. In the song “TURiSTA,” he has the ability to connect his music with even those who don’t understand the language through tone and the longing he portrays. Although the tempo matched with a slower guitar compared to “Perdonarte ¿Para Qué?” with its pop tempo, its spot on the playlist is well deserved.
“Frágil” (2023)
The bands Grupo Frontera and Yahritza y Su Esencia do a spectacular job on this song. The vocals are raw and the music highlights the emotional heartache, even though I didn’t understand the lyrics on the first listen. Both singers are supported by the band’s cumbia-norteño style, a genre of mixed rhythms from the Colombian cumbia Mexican norteño music, that gained popularity along the US-Mexico border. The beat is addicting, and the voices of Yahritza Martinez from her band, Yahritza y Su Esencia and Adelaido “Payo” Solís III from Grupo Frontera contrast in the best way. Martinez’s nasally vocal tone is contrasted with Solís’s rough and smooth tone, making the song even more enjoyable to listen to.
Although none of these three songs — so different in rhythm, lyrics and culture, portray the complexities and uniqueness of the Spanish-speaking world — won the competition on the international level (“Candela” by Alvaro Soler and Nico Santos), they all succeeded to the semi-finals or finals in Vohrees’ classroom competitions. Locura de Marzo allows students to learn about these complexities while being immersed in the artists and music that developed from these countries. While I didn’t expect it, I found songs I could add to my playlist and play on repeat.
