On September 21, 2025, the streets of Rio de Janeiro became a music classroom, where a choir of resistance embodied democracy in action. Legendary Brazilian musicians, such as Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Chico Buarque, Djavan, Paulinho da Viola, led a protest against amnesty for former President Jair Bolsonaro, an extreme right-wing figure, and the approval of the PEC da Blindagem, a constitutional amendment designed to shield politicians from accountability. An open choir of over 100,000 singing protest songs blurred the boundaries between music, politics, and pedagogy. In this presentation, I argue that public protests can be viewed as extensions of music classroom practice when grounded in democratic principles of critical reflection and collective action (Freire, 1989; Schmidt, 2005), and in the belief that teaching is, first and foremost, a political act (hooks, 1994). Protest songs, as both cultural artifacts and performative tools, provide an accessible and powerful way to introduce and engage learners in these practices.Brazil’s legacy of protest music, particularly during the military dictatorship (1964-1985), highlights how music can sustain critical inquiry under oppression. During this period, censorship, imprisonment, and exile sought to silence artists, yet songs became vehicles of coded resistance: Chico Buarque’s Apesar de Você (1970) declared that authoritarianism would not endure; Gil and Buarque’s Cálice (1973) played on the command cale-se (“shut up”) to defy censorship; and Caetano Veloso’s London, London (1971), written in exile, gave voice to displacement and alienation. Introducing protest music in educational contexts provides students with a “conduit for understanding” (Schmidt, 2005, p.10), fostering dialogue, inquiry, and critical reflection on social and political realities.The conviction of Jair Bolsonaro for attempting to incite a coup and undermine Brazil’s democratic institutions offers a moment of hope in the global struggle against authoritarianism. Music—often one of the first targets of repressive regimes—emerges as a powerful tool for defending freedom and fostering civic engagement. As Hess (2019) notes, resisting both oppressive ideologies and material violence is urgent and necessary. In this presentation, I will showcase examples of how music educators have acted as musician-activists across diverse contexts. We will also listen to and analyze protest songs from Brazil, exploring how music educators can channel their creativity into activism. These cases demonstrate how music can serve as a means of mobilizing communities and inspiring democratic action, highlighting the role of the musician-activist in both the classroom and society at large.