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RAFFI is an internationally acclaimed family entertainer, songwriter, author, and ecology advocate. For over 25 years, he has charted a unique career with unprecedented success, including hundreds of sold-out performances in North America's premier theaters, and sales of millions of gold and platinum albums, concert videos, and children's books based on his songs. With such classic songs as "Baby Beluga" and "Bananaphone," he has provided positive musical messages to generations of fans.
RAFFI CAVOUKIAN was born in 1948 in Cairo, Egypt, of Armenian parents. He was named Raffi after the famous Armenian author, one of his mother's favourite writers. When Raffi the singer was ten years old, his family immigrated to Canada and settled in Toronto (where he lived until he moved to Vancouver in 1990). His father, the renowned portrait photographer Cavouk, continued his successful career in Toronto, and also continued to play the accordion and sing in the Armenian Church choir. Music was very much a part of Raffi's growing up.
Raffi learned to play the guitar as a teenager, and spent many hours listening to his favourite singer-songwriters, including Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan, and learning to play and sing their songs. He soon started composing on his own, and in 1970 he began his career as a performer in local music spots.
In 1974, Raffi began to entertain young children in Toronto schools, where children laughed, clapped and sang along to his renditions of "Eensy Weensy Spider," "Baa Baa Black Sheep," and "The Wheels on the Bus." His appeal was magical from the start; here was a playful musician who didn't talk down to children to keep their attention. He sang songs that they loved, and encouraged them to join in as well as they could. From the beginning, his work showed respect for the child as a whole person.
In 1976, he recorded an album of traditional and original songs that recognized and incorporated children's need for music they could easily make their own. The result was Singable Songs For The Very Young, now a classic (over 2 million sold), and still the best-selling of all his recordings. Since then, Raffi has recorded twelve more albums and three concert videos (now available on DVD), and has delighted audiences all over North America with hundreds of live performances.
Along with his best-selling recordings, Raffi has created many books based on his music. In 1987, Crown Books/Random House published the first two titles in the Raffi Songs to Read picture book series, and another nine titles have been added since. Recent best sellers include board book editions of Down by the Bay, Five Little Ducks, and Spider on the Floor. In 2004, Rounder Books published their first Raffi picture book, Everything Grows, illustarted by Eugenie Fernandes
In 1999, Raffi wrote a book for adults, an autobiography titled The Life of a Children's Troubadour. It tells the story of his unique life and career, including his efforts to blend respect for both children and the natural world. As well as offering an unusual and fascinating story, the book itself is printed on recycled, chlorine-free paper, reflecting Raffi's ongoing commitment to ecological integrity. "With what we've recently learned about the dangers that persistent pollutants pose to children's health, it is important to change the way many goods, including books, are made," Raffi says.
Raffi is the subject of a documentary, aired nationally on CBC, titled Raffi: It Takes a Village. The film is about his life and unique career, and includes footage from his concert in 2000 for Tibetan children in Dharamsala, India, and his audience with the Dalai Lama.
A tireless champion for both children and the Earth, Raffi has shared his vision of a child-honouring society in settings as diverse as Harvard University, Parliament Hill in Ottawa, and the New York Academy of Medicine. His original songs have been sung in premier concert halls, at the Kyoto Global Forum, and in the General assembly of the United Nations. He has received the United Nation's Earth Achievement Award and was named to the Global 500 roll. A member of the Order of Canada and the Order of BC, he recently served as honourary Chair of UNEP's International Children's Conference on the Environment in Victoria, BC.
Raffi is working in word and in song to promote Child Honouring, an original philosophy which promotes respect for the first years of life as the best way to create a humane and sustainable world. He envisions a child-friendly world that benefits everyone, a world that considers the needs of the young as central to a peaceful and sustainable planet.
His Covenant for Honouring Children, a poetic declaration of our responsibilities to children and the Earth, is now widely circulated through child advocacy and environmental health groups.
In recent years Raffi has composed and performed many inspirational songs, including "Turn This World Around," inspired by Nelson Mandela. Along with songwriting, Raffi is currently working on a new book about child honouring. His mission-consistent with his work throughout his career-is to foster a society whose love for children is manifest in every aspect of its design and organization.
