Raffi

Raffi Cavoukian, known professionally by the mononym Raffi, is an Armenian-Canadian singer, lyricist, and author born on July 8, 1948, in Cairo, Egypt. He appeared on Broadway in 1993. Widely recognized for his children's music, he was described by The Washington Post in 1992 as the most popular children's singer in the English-speaking world.

Raffi was born to Armenian Christian parents who had fled Turkey during the Armenian genocide. His mother, Lucie, named him after the Armenian novelist Raffi. Both parents were musical influences in his early life, with his mother singing to him and his father singing and playing accordion. The family departed Egypt in 1952, spending time in Jerusalem and Syria before immigrating to Canada in 1958 and settling in Toronto, Ontario. His father, Arto Cavoukian, operated a portrait photography studio on Bloor Street in Toronto. His older brother, Onnig Cavoukian, known as Cavouk, is also a portrait photographer, and his younger sister, Ann Cavoukian, served as Ontario's Information and Privacy Commissioner. Raffi visited Soviet Armenia in 1972.

In the early 1970s, Raffi frequented a Toronto guitar store near Yonge and Wellesley called Millwheel, where he encountered Canadian musicians including David Wilcox and John Lacey. Lacey, a folk guitarist from Oakville, Ontario, helped him develop his fingerpicking technique. Raffi subsequently performed folk guitar in coffee houses in Toronto and Montreal before traveling to Vancouver in 1972. His first performance for children took place in 1974 at a nursery school operated by his mother-in-law. His debut album, Singable Songs for the Very Young, was recorded in a friend's basement and released in 1976, with its content shaped in part by three educators, including his then-wife.

His children's recordings typically feature folk instrumentation built around his vocals and guitar work. Early albums included contributions from Toronto-area folk musicians such as Ken Whiteley, The Honolulu Heartbreakers, and Bruce Cockburn. He incorporated world music elements into records including More Singable Songs in 1977 and The Corner Grocery Store in 1979. In 1979, after meeting a female beluga whale named Kavna at the Vancouver Aquarium, he wrote what became one of his most recognized songs, "Baby Beluga." Among his other well-known children's songs are "Bananaphone," "All I Really Need," and "Down by the Bay." His album Raffi In Concert With The Rise And Shine Band appeared on the RPM Top 100 Albums chart in 1989. He took a break from music between 1989 and 1990, and in 1999 published his autobiography, The Life of a Children's Troubadour. After a seven-year gap in releasing new material, he issued the album Let's Play in 2002, and between 2003 and 2013 he stepped away from touring. His most recent album, Penny Penguin, a collaboration with Canadian trio The Good Lovelies, was released in 2024. He is president of Troubadour Music Inc., a company he founded to produce and promote his work, and has released recordings for other artists including Caitlin Hanford and Chris Whiteley.

Raffi's advocacy work spans environmental and social causes. He has been engaged in environmental advocacy since 1989, releasing the adult music album Evergreen, Everblue in 1990 on the subject of climate change. In 2004 he released "Salaam Shalom," a song addressing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In 2007 he wrote, recorded, and produced "Cool It," a rockabilly track on global warming featuring Dr. David Suzuki, which served as the theme for Suzuki's Canadian climate action tour. In February 2016 he released "Wave of Democracy" in support of Senator Bernie Sanders' campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination. In September 2019 he released "Young People Marching," written for climate activist Greta Thunberg. In August 2020 he released "For All You Do," featuring Lindsay Munroe and cellist Yo-Yo Ma, honoring frontline and essential workers during the COVID-19 pandemic, with proceeds donated to Direct Relief. He is a member of the Canadian charity Artists Against Racism.

In 1997, Raffi developed the concept of Child Honouring, which he has described as a vision of social change centered on the universal human child. In 2006, he co-edited an anthology with Dr. Sharna Olfman titled Child Honouring: How to Turn This World Around, with a foreword by the 14th Dalai Lama and contributions from writers including Penelope Leach, Fritjof Capra, Barbara Kingsolver, and Graça Machel, among others. A companion album, Resisto Dancing: Songs of Compassionate Revolution, was released alongside the book. That same year, Iona Campagnolo, Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia, characterized Child Honouring as a vast change in the human paradigm. Also in 2006, Raffi received the Fred Rogers Integrity Award from the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood at the Judge Baker Children's Center in Boston, in recognition of his refusal to license his music for product endorsements directed at children. His company has never directly advertised or marketed to children, and he declined a film proposal for "Baby Beluga" due to its reliance on exploitative advertising. In 2005 he sent an open letter to Ted Rogers of Rogers Wireless urging the company to cease marketing cell phones to children. In 2012, following the online bullying and suicide of teenager Amanda Todd, Raffi and the Raffi Foundation for Child Honouring co-founded the Red Hood Project with Sandy Garossino and Mark Busse.