The finalists of the Eloquentia competition set the Seine Musicale on fire

With the eloquence trophy in hand, young Abigail Alexandre began by thanking God: “I come from so far! »she said, with tears in her eyes, in front of 4,000 people who came to attend the final of Eloquentia, at the Seine Musicale. Born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, the young girl grew up in a single-parent family, in a land considered to be the poorest on the American continent, 7,400 kilometers from Paris.

Wednesday evening, on stage, she shone brightly, imposing her small figure and her conviction for six minutes on the theme of inequalities created by AI; in front of her, and on the same subject, the young Anna Hemmat, very sensitive, gave the impression. Like the two other candidates, one from Senegal, the other from Nanterre, and who fought on “saying yes to AI means saying no to humans”. But the jury and a joyfully crazy audience decided for the one who came “from afar”and will undoubtedly go even further one day.

This competition, lasting one evening, not only brought out four young French-speaking people gifted with words and capable of holding the attention of a room filled with the magic of an invitation posted on Instagram. He will have shown, if necessary, that the art of speech is not necessarily reserved for well-established men, nor for those born on the right side of the handle.

The evening was organized by the Eloquentia association, created in Seine-Saint-Denis in 2013 and revealed to the general public by the film by Stéphane de Freitas Out loud. “The initial idea was to allow bold people from all social backgrounds to learn to speak up, to be able to obtain internships or a job and better orient themselves in life,” explains its director Laurane Bourgoint.

Strong and sometimes funny words

SAccording to an OpinionWay/Eloquentia barometer, from 2025, the need to master the French language is perfectly identified by young people, who have understood that a rich and precise vocabulary facilitates the clear expression of ideas (88%). However, 62% of companies admit that it is more complex for young recruits to master speaking than for their older colleagues, born after social networks. However, insists the director of Eloquentia, nothing is inevitable, and “when we give young people space, they take it”. Listening to the four finalists on Wednesday, we understood that this bet was the right one, each having made a strong, original, caring and sometimes funny statement.

More than a decade after its launch, the association and its competition have experienced spectacular growth, with 45 branches in France and French-speaking countries, and 2,000 candidates presented each year. Three new branches will soon open, from which future great jugglers will emerge or, quite simply, young people standing tall in the face of adversity.