2026 BARCELONA
WHAT IS A LIFE WELL LIVED?
In 2026 4Voices marked its fifth anniversary – five amazing years dedicated to empowering young people across Spain to discover and share their voices. On 19 April 2026, a remarkable group of young speakers took the stage at Barcelona’s CosmoCaixa, engaging the audience with speeches inspired by the theme ‘What is a Life Well Lived?’.
We’re so proud of what we’ve achieved together. Hundreds of teenagers have stepped up to express their ideas, their concerns, their dreams and their hopes for the future – what really matters to them.
Students in 4th ESO and 1st Bachillerato across Spain were invited to submit a 60 to 90-second video in English, sharing their ideas for a speech inspired by this year’s theme, ‘What is a Life Well Lived?”. From these submissions, 30 participants were selected to join our transformative 4Voices Bootcamp, a full day of learning, confidence-building and creativity, held at the Swiss Business School in Barcelona. Guided by our expert mentors Cormac Walsh, Gabriella Opaz and Carrie Frais, they developed the essential skills needed to craft and deliver truly compelling speeches.
Following the Bootcamp, 12 outstanding finalists were selected and began their training journey with our mentors as they prepared to take the stage at the Grand Finale, which was held at CosmoCaixa in Barcelona on 19 April 2026. It was an unforgettable celebration, not just of public speaking, but of courage, ideas and the power of young voices to shape the world around them.
4Voices ‘What is a Life Well Lived?’ Bootcamp 2026
At 4Voices, we’re incredibly proud of all 12 of our finalists. While we truly believe every one of them is a winner, the competition also includes prizes, so congratulations to:
FIRST
Elki Ghersie Brown (Sotogrande International School)
Living Beyond Glass
SECOND
Sol Gibbs Claver (FX Film School)
Fan the Flame
THIRD
Carlos Otón García (St Peter’s School)
Life’s Greatest Teacher
Sol Gibbs Claver, Elkie Ghersie Brown, Carlos Otón García
Visit our YouTube channel to watch full versions of all the speeches
We spend so much time chasing the idea of a perfect life that we forget to ask ‘whose idea was it in the first place?’. From a young age we’re told what happiness should look like - money, success, popularity. But sometimes the happiest people aren’t the richest or the most admired, they’re the ones who have the courage to define happiness for themselves. Maybe a life well lived starts when we stop following someone else’s map and start drawing our own.
