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Raffi was born in Cairo, Egypt, to Armenian parents who fled Turkey during the Armenian genocide. His mother named him after the Armenian novelist Raffi. In 1958, his family immigrated to Canada, eventually settling in Toronto, Ontario. His father, Arto Cavoukian, was a well-known portrait photographer with a studio on Bloor Street in Toronto. His older brother, Onnig Cavoukian, known as Cavouk, is also a famous portrait photographer. His younger sister is Ann Cavoukian, Ontario's former Information and Privacy Commissioner. His parents died within twelve hours of each other, his mother dying first of abdominal cancer.[1] He visited Soviet Armenia once in 1972.[2]
In the early 1970s, Raffi frequented a Toronto guitar store near Yonge and Wellesley called Millwheel, where he met other developing Canadian musicians such as David Wilcox and John Lacey. He befriended Lacey, a folk guitarist from Oakville, Ontario, who helped Raffi improve his finger picking. Raffi continued playing folk guitar in coffee houses in Toronto and Montréal before hitchhiking to Vancouver in 1972 to find "fame and fortune".
He returned to Toronto a few years later and was invited to sing for a Toronto public school. Despite his initial hesitations about singing for kids, he was an immediate success, and thus began his career entertaining children.
Career
Children's entertainer
Once called "the most popular children's singer in the English-speaking world",[3] he is well loved by many children born in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s for his popular children's songs. His autobiography, The Life of a Children's Troubadour, documents the first part of his award-winning career. Some of Raffi's best-known children's songs are "Baby Beluga", "Bananaphone", "All I Really Need", and "Down by the Bay".
Most of Raffi's children's albums include small, simple, folk instrumentations featuring Raffi's vocal and guitar work. Early works included contributions from Toronto-area folk musicians, including Ken Whiteley, The Honolulu Heartbreakers, and Bruce Cockburn. Raffi also incorporated many world music sounds into his records, including "Sambalele" (More Singable Songs, 1977) and "Anansi" (The Corner Grocery Store, 1979).
In 1989, his album Raffi In Concert With The Rise And Shine Band was listed on the RPM Top 100 Albums chart.[4]
Raffi is a member of the Canadian charity Artists Against Racism.[5]
He is currently the president of Troubadour Music Inc., a triple-bottom-line company he founded to produce and promote his work. He released recordings for a number of other artists, including Caitlin Hanford and Chris Whiteley.[6]
As of 2017, Raffi continues to perform and appears occasionally across Canada and the United States. His most recent album is "Penny Penguin", a collaboration album with Canadian trio The Good Lovelies which was released in 2024.
2024 Segregation controversy
At a show in May 2024 at the The Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts in Hartford, Connecticut, Stefan Burns, a 33 year-old man with Angelman syndrome was sitting in the front row waiting for Raffi to begin the show, cheering and screaming along with children & families in the audience. Security approached Burns & his family and insisted they move to the back, because "the artist could hear you in his dressing room and will not perform if you stay in these seats."[7]
Stefan's mother said,"Stefan’s been to hundreds of shows, and he’s never disrupted the show, including shows on Broadway... As soon as the show would have started he would have been in awe and just listening... If he was disrupting the show, of course we would take him out; we would leave. But he wasn’t doing that. The show hadn’t even started yet. There were other kids that were screaming just in excitement. And Stefan was saying hi. It was so sad. It was heartbreaking.” The family said in the days following, neither Raffi nor the theater reached out to them. Eventually, Roberta called the theater and received a refund and apology.[8]
The Raffi organization issued a statement saying:
“Before the show was to begin, Stefan was extremely loud, loud enough to be heard throughout the theater and backstage. Acting on behalf of both the artist and the audience, Bushnell staff asked Stefan and his family to move further back in the hall, where his vocalizations would be less likely to disrupt the performance.
Raffi has a long history of inclusion at his concerts. Over the years he has met with hundreds of children, paying particular attention to all children with special needs. Of course we are saddened by Stefan’s experience, and we extend our best wishes to him and his parents.”
Advocacy
Raffi's recent musical work focuses on social and environmental causes and appeals to the generation who grew up with his children's music ("Beluga Grads") to effect change in the world. He also promotes those causes through his books, academic lectures and as a speaker. In 2007, Raffi wrote, recorded and produced the single "Cool It", a rockabilly "call to action" on global warming with Dr. David Suzuki in the chorus. "Cool It" was the theme song for Dr. Suzuki's recent Canadian tour to promote action on climate change. In February 2016, Raffi released the song "Wave of Democracy" in support of American Senator Bernie Sanders run to be the Democratic nominee for US Presidency. In September 2019 he released song "Young People Marching", which was written for Greta Thunberg.
Child Honouring
In the 21st century, Raffi has devoted himself to "Child Honouring," his vision for creating a humane and sustainable world by addressing the universal needs of children. The Child Honouring ethic is described as a "vision, an organizing principle, and a way of life—a revolution in values that calls for a profound redesign of every sphere of society."[9] His "Covenant for Honouring Children" outlines the principles of this philosophy.[10]
In a 2006 speech, Iona Campagnolo, Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia, referred to Child Honouring as a "vast change in the human paradigm."[11]
Raffi advocates for a child's right to live free of commercial exploitation and he has consistently refused all commercial endorsement offers. Raffi's company has never directly advertised nor marketed to children. In 2005, he sent an open letter to Ted Rogers of Rogers Wireless, urging them to stop marketing cell phones to children.[12] He also turned down a film proposal for "Baby Beluga" because of the nature of the funding, which was based on exploitative advertising and marketing.[13]
Raffi has been hailed for his work as "Canada's all time children's champion".[14]
In October 2006, Raffi was presented with the Fred Rogers Integrity Award by the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood at the Judge Baker Children's Center in Boston, for his consistent refusal to use his music in endorsements that market products directly to children.
In 2012, after learning details surrounding the online bullying, exploitation and ultimate suicide of teenager Amanda Todd, Raffi and his Raffi Foundation for Child Honouring co-founded the Red Hood Project with business owner, former Crown prosecutor, community and arts philanthropist and advocate Sandy Garossino and design professional, writer, educator and community activist Mark Busse. Red Hood Project is a movement for consumer protection for children online that launched in November 2012.
In June 2013, Raffi published the book, Lightweb Darkweb: Three Reasons to Reform Social Media Before it Re-forms Us, which examines both the benefits and the dangers present on the internet and in social media.
Part of the first great Mongol invasion of Europe Mongol incursions in the Holy Roman Empire took place in the spring of 1241 and again in the winter of 1241–42. They were part of the first Mongol invasion of Europe. A Tartar Feast, miniature illustration by Matthew Paris depicting Mongol cannibalism at the siege of Neustat The Mongols did not advance far into the Holy Roman Empire and there was no major clash of arms on its territory. Rather, the army that had invaded Poland, after harassing …
Football league of Canada CFL USA redirects here. For the 1960s American league that also abbreviated as CFL, see Continental Football League. The Canadian Football League (CFL), which features teams based Canada, has made efforts to gain further audience in the United States, most directly through expansion into the country from the 1993 CFL season through the 1995 CFL season. The CFL plays Canadian football, a form of gridiron football which is somewhat different from the more common American …
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