Biography

One of the leading lights in children's music, Raffi is virtually synonymous with a light, playful style of song and storytelling. Born in Egypt and raised in Canada, Raffi Cavoukian initially launched his musical career in Toronto as folk singer/songwriter, though he would later find his greatest success when he redirected his performances and recordings toward children in the late '70s. In the ensuing decades, he would go on to revolutionize children's music, starting his own label and becoming both an author and an advocate for ecological awareness in the process, while offering music that traversed folk, reggae, ragtime, gospel, jazz, country, and calypso influences. Throughout his career, he has remained faithful to a non-commercial approach, making an effort to keep ticket prices low and refusing to play in larger theaters -- including turning down an opportunity to perform at New York's Madison Square Garden -- in order to connect to his young audience. He also eschews product endorsements and has turned down film adaptations of his songs due to affiliated kid-targeted advertising. Later in his career, Raffi founded the Centre for Child Honouring, a foundation promoting his vision of a "children-first approach to healing communities and restoring ecosystems" as well as founding the anti-bullying Red Hood Project, which focuses on online security for children. A commercial success nevertheless, some of his highest-charting albums include 1994's Bananaphone, 2014's Love Bug, and 2017's Best of Raffi, all three of which made it into the Top Ten of Billboard's Kid Albums chart. He followed those in 2022 with a traditional set, Nursery Rhymes for Kinder Times, a collaboration with Lindsay Munroe. The son of a well-known portrait photographer and amateur accordion player, Raffi picked up guitar while in high school and cut his teeth in Toronto's early-'70s folk scene alongside other aspiring musicians like David Wilcox and John Lacey. His introduction to writing children's music came about somewhat accidentally when he was invited to perform as part of a folk festival in a local school in the mid-'70s. Around this same time, Raffi's mother-in-law asked him to perform some songs at her nursery school and took note of his natural ability to connect with a young audience. At her urging, he recorded his debut album, a collection of children's music called Singable Songs for the Very Young. At the time there was a noticeable lack of quality in children's music available and his album was quickly embraced by both children and their grateful parents. Not long after, Raffi was signed to A&M, which reissued the album, effectively beginning his wildly successful career as one of the world's most beloved children's entertainers. Aside from 1977's adult-oriented album Adult Entertainment (later reissued as Lovelight), Raffi devoted his total attention to the younger set, releasing a string of popular albums including 1980's Baby Beluga, whose title track would become one of his best-known songs. In 1983, Raffi received the prestigious Order of Canada, the country's highest civilian award, for his work with children. That year, he issued his first holiday release, Raffi's Christmas Album; it became a Top 30 Billboard holiday album. In the late '80s, Raffi re-invented himself as an "eco-troubadour," performing songs about the environment for adults as well as children. An album of ecologically minded songs, Evergreen, Everblue, was released in 1990. He went on to blend ecological themes and children's fare throughout his career. Mixing traditional fare, word play, instrumentals, and nature songs, he had one of his biggest commercial successes with 1994's Bananaphone, which reached both the Top 20 of the Kid Albums chart and the Top 30 of the Heatseekers Albums chart. In February 1996, the Rounder label announced that they had reached an agreement with Raffi to reissue his first 11 albums. The first release, The Singable Songs Collection, united his first three albums. 2000 brought the publication of his memoir, The Life of a Children's Troubadour. This period also saw the formation and development of his Child Honouring philosophy, which he further explained in a 2006 book titled Child Honouring: How to Turn This World Around. Even with all of his charitable efforts, he continued to write and perform, releasing new albums like 2009's Communion, and 2014's Love Bug, the latter of which reached a career-high number four on the children's chart and five on the Heatseekers chart. Then 40 years into his career as a children's musician, he also charted with 2016's Owl Singalong and 2018's Dog on the Floor. In the meantime, the Best of Raffi compilation was released and spent over 100 weeks on the Billboard Kid Albums chart, eventually peaking at number seven in 2020. A collaborative album with Lindsay Munroe, Nursery Rhymes for Kinder Times, followed in 2022. It endeavored to teach younger generations classic nursery rhymes. ~ Timothy Monger & Marcy Donelson, Rovi