What Is a Tunisia88 Club? How 596 Student Leaders Run Their Own Music Programs
Every Tunisia88 club is student-led, teacher-supported and community-facing. Here is exactly how one works, from elections to the national contest.
There are 596 Tunisia88 clubs across Tunisia. Each one is different in sound, in personality, in the music it makes. But every club shares the same structure: a student leader elected by peers, a teacher mentor from the same school, a weekly meeting and a connection to the national network.
Student-led, not teacher-run
The most important thing to understand about a Tunisia88 club is that a student runs it. Not a music teacher. Not a principal. A student, elected by the club's own members at the start of each academic year.
That student completes three trainings during their mandate: Leadership Training 1 in September, Creativity Training in November, Leadership Training 2 in December. By the time a club leader has gone through all three, they know how to run meetings, plan events, manage a team through disagreement, write a song structure and hand the club to the next leader in better shape than they found it.
The teacher's role
Every club is supported by a teacher at the same school. That teacher does not need to be a music teacher. Their role is not to direct the music. Their role is to provide stability within the school system, to make sure the club has a rehearsal space, to connect the club leader to school administration when needed.
The distinction matters. Tunisia88 is not a music class. It is a student activity, and the teacher is a backstop, not a director.
What happens every week
- Clubs meet at least once a week, typically in the school's music room or a free classroom.
- Sessions involve rehearsal, planning and creative work, depending on where the club is in the annual cycle.
- During the Song Contest season, clubs are writing and refining original compositions.
- During the choir audition windows, the strongest performers are preparing audition repertoire.
- For the rest of the year, clubs are planning community events, organizing internal performances and recruiting new members.
The national contests
Every year, Tunisia88 runs two national contests. The Song Contest is a composition competition: clubs write original pieces, submit them to a panel of judges that includes international musicians, and the winners are announced at the Alumni Summit.
The Event Contest recognizes the clubs that best staged a public music event in their community during the year. Both contests exist for the same reason: to give clubs a national stage for the work they do locally.
From club member to regional choir
The top musicians in the clubs audition for Tunisia88's 11 regional choirs. Audition windows open in August, October and February each year. Around 400 young musicians make it into the choirs, performing in the six Polyphonic Choirs and five Arab Choirs and Orchestras across the country.
Being in a choir does not pull a student away from their club. It is an additional layer. The club is the base; the choir is the next stage.
