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Raffi Cavoukian was born in 1948 in Cairo, Egypt of Armenian parents. He emigrated to Canada with his family when he was ten. He first started playing guitar as a teenager. He started performing as a folk singer in the late 1960's. In the mid-seventies, Raffi became an entertainer on Toronto's coffeehouse circuit. In 1974, he was invited to sing for a local nursery school class. The children loved Raffi and the feeling was mutual. As he did more performances for children Raffi noticed that these concerts drew bigger crowds than the ones he did for adults. Parents liked him as a children's singer, too; they were delighted with the quality of his music. The rest is history.
In 1976, Raffi recorded SINGABLE SONGS FOR THE VERY YOUNG. Its appealing mix of traditional favorites and original compositions was an immediate success and launched his career. It remains his best-selling album.
Raffi enchants his audience through a wide variety of musical styles always guided by the desire to select songs that children can make their own. Interconnectedness with the natural world and love within the global family are recurrent Raffi themes. These themes are reflected in the titles of many of his albums: ONE LIGHT, ONE SUN; RISE AND SHINE; and EVERYTHING GROWS.
Across Canada and the United States, Raffi's music and books are endorsed as resource material by boards of education and leading educators. In contrast to much of the popular entertainment currently available to children, Raffi carefully avoids stereotypes, violence and negativity in his songs. Adults and children alike respond to his positive, often humorous approach to music and life. "A well-made children's record is right up there with a well-made children's book, in terms of what it can offer the young child," says Raffi. "They both evoke feelings and images and moods."
Raffi is a real person whose musical world view is simultaneously simple and sophisticated. His last studio album RAFFI RADIO harks back to a time when families gathered to listen to the magic of words and music from faraway places. It's a contemporary mix of new songs, skits and incidental music all designed to make the imagination flower.
"My music respects its audience," says Raffi. "By understanding that children are whole people with important feelings and concerns, we give them the best chance of becoming healthy, loving adults."
This concern has translated into action. Raffi has served as an international spokesperson for children and the environment. He has received the United Nations Environmental Achievement Award for his work, and was named goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations (UNEP), with special responsibility for youth.
Raffi continues to tour extensively, with an all-new stage show that is a culmination of his imaginative, innovative vision of family entertainment.
* You can find more information about Raffi in Something About the Author, Gale Research Inc., Detroit, New York, Toronto, London, c 1992, vol. 68 pps. 45-48
In this song, two children imagine their mothers asking, "Did you ever see a goose kissing a moose, a fly wearing a tie, or llamas eating their pajamas down by the bay?
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