WVD (World Voice Day) is a global annual event held on 16 April dedicated to the phenomenon of voice celebration. The aim is to show the enormous value of the voice in the people’s daily lives. Voice is an important aspect of healthy and effective communication. The WVD brings worldwide awareness of the necessity of preventing voice issues, training the artistic voice, rehabilitating the sick or deviant voice as well as researching the application and function of the voice.

The World Voice Day goal is to encourage people using their voice for pleasure or business to learn how they can take care of their voice plus know how they can seek help as well as training and also support research that is carried on the voice. The production of voice is normally studied and applied in lots of disciplines like biology, art, phonetics, psychology, physics, music, speech-language pathology and medicine.

The idea to dedicate a special day, annually on 16 April to the voice was first launched in the year 1999 by the Society of Laryngology & Voice in Brazil. In 2002, Professor Mario Andre, the Portuguese laryngologist, then the European Laryngological Society president, suggested that people all over the world should celebrate World Voice Day.

That idea was developed further and adopted in different nations. In 2012, Dr Filipa L√£ from Portugal, Prof. Tecumseh Fitch from Austria and Prof. Johan Sundberg from Sweden, who were all voice researchers, invited voice experts from several nations to form a global group for the World Voice Day celebration. Currently, the group has 66 members; these members initiate, as well as help, coordinate the World Voice Day events in their respective nations. In 2016, over 700 events were held.