March Music Madness Reigns!
• For the past five years, Minnesota Public Radio Non-Comm Triple A KCMP (The Current)/Minneapolis has put its own twist on the NCAA’s annual March Madness hysteria, using the bracket template to pit different albums, artists and bands against each other. Last year’s March Music Madness category was “Best Album of the ’90s” — [spoiler alert: Nevermind won]. This year The Current created a brand new category — “Iconic Voices” in music history.
The action started on Tuesday with a field of 64 artists who were paired up head-to-head in 30-minute segments from 10am-6pm while listeners voted. As PD Jim McGuinn tells RAMP, “The action gets really intense — especially the last day — Friday, and along the way people fill out their brackets like that other thing that I understand happens in March.”
Jim’s right — today at 10am, and more than 50,000 votes later, it all come down to this — The Current proudly presents its Sweet 16 matchups: Freddie Mercury vs. Frank Sinatra, Robert Plant vs. Bob Dylan, James Brown vs. Whitney Houston, Bruce Springsteen vs. Janis Joplin, Aretha Franklin vs. Tina Turner, Johnny Cash vs. Ray Charles, Bjork vs. Prince and David Bowie vs. Elton John. Listen live or follow along online as the winner is crowned later today!
