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World Voice Day

Next celebratedFriday, April 16, 2027

Brazil, which started World Voice Day, marks it by booking appointments: almost two hundred registered centers went to work in 2018 to catch laryngeal cancer early. Elsewhere April 16 is lectures and singing workshops.

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Last updated September 6, 2026 · by the Holiday Calendar TeamHave an update or spot an error?
YEARLY DATEApril 16
OBSERVED INInternationally
CATEGORYHealth
SUBCATEGORYAlternative Health
ORIGIN

Institutional Initiative

FOUNDING ENTITY
Sociedade Brasileira de Laringologia e Voz
FIRST OBSERVED
1999
“The title World Voice Day dates only from 2002, when an American surgical academy recognised a Brazilian campaign already three years old.
HOW THE HOLIDAY CAME TO BE

A Brazilian society's campaign that the world adopted.

Physicians, speech-language pathologists and singing teachers in the Sociedade Brasileira de Laringologia e Voz launched the observance in Brazil in 1999 as the Brazilian National Voice Day, under the society's president Nedio Steffen. After Argentina and Portugal took it up it became the International Voice Day, and recognition by the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery in 2002 gave it the name World Voice Day.

Read the 2007 origin accountvia Folia Phoniatrica et Logopaedica
INTRO

Brazil marks the day it invented by screening for cancer

Most of the world observes World Voice Day with lectures, singing workshops and public performances. Brazil books appointments. Its 2018 Voice Week put almost two hundred registered centers to work, public hospitals and private clinics among them.

What those clinics were looking for was cancer. The campaign's stated focus is the early diagnosis of laryngeal cancer, and Brazil's National Cancer Institute put the country's estimate at 7,670 new cases that year.

That is the split at the center of the day. Abroad it is a celebration of the human voice. In the country that started it, it is a clinic.

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ORIGINS

World Voice Day history

INTRODUCTION

Two published histories of the Brazilian campaign both apologise for the record. One notes the scarcity of historical records. The other says there are few records of its history at all.

The 1999 guidance document one of them cites, issued by the organisers themselves, is no longer online. What survives is the shape of the thing.

CHAPTER 01

Three professions in one room

The day began inside the Sociedade Brasileira de Laringologia e Voz, a Brazilian society of laryngology and voice. Its membership was not only medical. Doctors, speech therapists and singing teachers built the first campaign together, in partnership with the country's otorhinolaryngology society.

Nedio Steffen presided over the society in the launch year and directed the campaign's first actions. Its later coordinators credit him with creating it outright. The account the day's own website cites names no individual at all.

It ran as a week, not a day. The first Voice Week filled 16 to 21 April in 1999. More than 40,000 people were seen across every Brazilian state.

CHAPTER 02

The name came from abroad

Argentina and Portugal took the idea up, and the Brazilian national day became the International Voice Day. The American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery then recognised it in 2002, and the event acquired the title it carries now.

The Brazilian campaign's own national coordinators date that international recognition to 2003 instead. Everyone else, including the account the day's website cites, says 2002.

CHAPTER 03

A law, nine years on

The society that started it did not survive. The SBLV was reconstituted as the Academia Brasileira de Laringologia e Voz and narrowed its membership to physicians, which left the campaign running under two organisations rather than one.

Brazil legislated in 2008. Lei 11.704, signed by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and his health minister Jose Gomes Temporao, put the Dia Nacional da Voz on 16 April. It creates a commemorative date, not a day off.

TIMELINE

Timeline

A Brazilian society launches Voice Week

The Sociedade Brasileira de Laringologia e Voz, working with the Sociedade Brasileira de Otorrinolaringologia, opens the first campaign as a week rather than a day.

The day gets its present name

The American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery officially recognises the celebration, which acquires the name World Voice Day and a US sponsor.

The history reaches print

Jan G. Svec and Mara Behlau publish an account of the observance in Folia Phoniatrica et Logopaedica, written for the Voice Committee of the International Association of Logopedics and Phoniatrics.

Brazil writes it into law

Lei 11.704, sanctioned on 18 June, institutes the Dia Nacional da Voz on 16 April to raise Brazilian public awareness of voice care.

A global website group forms in Erlangen

Eighteen named specialists meet on 4 July, agreeing to publish every event in one place and to ask one person in as many countries as possible to coordinate locally.

The twentieth Brazilian campaign

Brazil opens its 20th edition at the Museu do Amanha in Rio de Janeiro, and the global register logs almost 800 entries from 55 countries.

WHY THIS DAY MATTERS

Why World Voice Day Matters

DIAGNOSIS

Three weeks of hoarseness is a threshold, not a guess.

The editorial that set out the day's purpose names a threshold: voice problems lasting more than three weeks may indicate developing laryngeal pathology and should be examined by a specialist physician. The same editorial lists what the day puts in front of people to make the point: vocal counselling, voice screenings and laryngeal examinations.

PREVALENCE

Voice trouble is not rare

An estimated 17.9 million American adults, or 7.6 percent, reported a problem with their voice in the past 12 months. About 9.4 million said the problem lasted a week or longer.

TREATMENT

Children's voice cases get the least help

Among American children aged 3 to 17 who have voice, speech or language disorders, those with speech or language problems receive intervention services at 67.6 and 66.8 percent. Children with a voice disorder receive them at 22.8 percent.

GOOD TO KNOW

Surprising facts about World Voice Day

Visitors can walk inside a giant larynx

Brazil's campaign built an inflatable giant larynx in 2010, a mouth, pharynx and larynx model that visitors step inside to see how the voice is produced. It has been rebuilt twice since.

The original plan was a relay concert round the world

The group that built the day's global website aimed to broadcast a choral concert live from country to country, starting in the far East and ending in the far West.

One broadcaster ran it in 31 newsrooms

In 2013, 31 of one broadcaster's 45 regional newsrooms ran reports on the campaign, and 29 of the reports aired on 16 April itself. The average report ran 5.3 minutes.

Famous Brazilians have fronted it since the first year

Brazilian public figures have lent the campaign their names year by year, including Xuxa and Gabriel Pensador in 1999, Pele in 2003 and Sandy Leah in 2013. Ney Matogrosso and Maya Gabeira joined the 2018 edition.

Utah proclaimed the date under another name

On 16 April 2010, Governor Gary R. Herbert proclaimed Voice and Speech Celebration Day, inaugurated by the National Center for Voice and Speech. The University of Utah is the center's lead institution.

In the first two editions, the Campaign counted on the joint effort of doctors, speech therapists and singing professionals. This important partnership has decreased over the years.
Gustavo Polacow Korn and Marcos Antonio SarvatNational coordinators, Brazilian National Voice Campaign
It is our hope that the World Voice Day will grow further and reflect the increasing importance of the human voice in today's society and people's quality of life.
Jan G. Svec and Mara BehlauAuthors, Folia Phoniatrica et Logopaedica, 2007

GOOD TO KNOW

World Voice Day Around the World

Brazil

runs it as a numbered national campaign, reaching its 27th edition in 2025

Russia

registered 138 events in the 2019 bulletin, topping the global count for the first time

Argentina

third by event count in the 2019 bulletin, with 71 events registered

United States

a surgical academy runs the observance, and a federal health institute joins it and funds voice research

Worldwide

the 2026 register lists 279 events, from a Cairo case-report session to a Tokyo workshop and a Pilsen concert

GET INVOLVED

How to Observe World Voice Day

EDITOR'S PICK

Time your hoarseness before you ignore it

Note the day a hoarse voice started and count forward from there. If it passes three weeks without clearing, book an appointment with a specialist.

FIND

Find a free voice screening near you

Voice clinics and university programmes offer free screenings around the date and list them publicly. Check the official campaign register for something running in your country.

REGISTER

Register an event on the official campaign site

The organisers keep an open register that anyone running an event can add to. The country totals in their annual bulletins are counted from it.

REST

Rest your voice while a cold runs its course

The risk of voice damage rises during upper respiratory infections. Blood vessels on the vocal folds can rupture during crying or exceedingly loud vocalisations.

LEARN

Learn what your vocal folds actually do

The vocal folds are two muscular bands of tissue that vibrate when you exhale to create voice. National health agencies publish plain explanations of how they work and what goes wrong.

GET INVOLVED

Resources and Support

WORLD

World Voice Day

World Voice Day. the global event register and the year's theme

DYSPHONIA

Dysphonia International

Dysphonia International. patient organisation for spasmodic dysphonia and related voice conditions

Test your knowledge

How well do you know World Voice Day?

1 / 8

In which country did World Voice Day begin?

Answer

No, and no country was found that treats it as one. It appears on neither the UNESCO nor the United Nations list of international days, and the one statute located anywhere, Brazil's Lei 11.704 of 2008, marks the date nationally without creating a day off.

COLOPHON

Sources

How we know what’s on this page. References, not endorsements.

14sources
11primary records
9independently dated
Primary records
Brazilian Journal of Otorhinolaryngology2018
20th National Voice Campaign
The campaign's national coordinators on its free-care week, its cancer focus and its inflatable larynx.
View source
Folia Phoniatrica et Logopaedica2007
April 16th: The World Voice Day
The published account of how the day began in Brazil and acquired its name in 2002.
View source
Presidencia da Republica do Brasil2008
Lei no 11.704, de 18 de junho de 2008
The Brazilian statute placing the Dia Nacional da Voz on 16 April.
View source
National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders
Quick Statistics About Voice, Speech, Language
US prevalence figures for voice problems and how often children get treated for them.
View source
National Center for Voice and Speech2010
Governor Gary Herbert Proclaims Voice and Speech Celebration Day
A Utah proclamation marking 16 April 2010 under a different name.
View source
National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders2015
Celebrate World Voice Day: Take care of your voice
Federal confirmation that a surgical academy has sponsored the US observance since 2002.
View source
World Voice Day
Archive: Previous World Voice Day Directives
The organisers' annual bulletins, with country-by-country event counts and past mottos.
View source
World Voice Day2026
World Voice Day 2026 and event register
The current theme and the open list of registered events worldwide.
View source
Academia Brasileira de Laringologia e Voz
Campanha da Voz
The Brazilian organiser's campaign pages, numbered by edition.
View source
American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery
World Voice Day
The US sponsor's campaign page and vocal health guidance.
View source
World Speech Day
World Speech Day
The separate 15 March observance for speeches and speech-making.
View source
Additional coverage
Disturbios da Comunicacao2014
Campanha da Voz: uma iniciativa para cuidados em saude
A history of the Brazilian Voice Campaign, its first Voice Week and its founding society.
View source
CoDAS2015
Dia Mundial da Voz em noticia: analise das reportagens sobre a Campanha da Voz no Brasil
A study of how Brazilian regional television covered the campaign in 2013.
View source
Dysphonia International2026
2026 World Voice Day: Caring for Our Voices!
A patient organisation's observance built around spasmodic dysphonia.
View source
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