Raffi Cavoukian, CM, OBC (born July 8, 1948), better known by his stage name Raffi, is a Canadian singer-songwriter, author, essayist and lecturer. He has developed his career as a "global troubadour", to become a music producer, author, entrepreneur, systems thinker, and the founder of Centre for Child Honouring, a vision for global restoration.
Born in Cairo, Egypt, to Armenian parents, he spent his early years in Egypt before emigrating with his family to Canada in 1958, eventually settling in Toronto, Ontario. His mother named him after the Armenian poet Raffi. His father Arto Cavoukian was a well-known portrait photographer with a studio on Bloor Street in Toronto. His brother Onnig Cavoukian, known as "Cavouk", is also a famous portrait photographer. His sister is Ann Cavoukian, Ontario's Information and Privacy Commissioner.
In the early 1970s, Raffi frequented a guitar store near Yonge and Wellesley called Millwheel, where he met other developing Canadian musicians such as David Wilcox and John Lacey. Raffi ran a coffee house at the University of Toronto up until 1980. He befriended John Lacey, a folk guitarist from Oakville, Ontario, who helped Raffi improve his finger picking (John went on to become a steel guitar player). Raffi continued playing folk guitar in various coffee houses in Toronto and Montreal before hitchhiking to Vancouver in 1972 to find "fame and fortune". He returned to Toronto after a few years and was invited to sing for a Toronto public school. Despite his own hesitations about singing for kids, he was an immediate success and thus began his career entertaining children.
He moved to Mayne Island near Victoria, British Columbia, in 1989.
Raffi started his own fund, and now is an environmentalist as well as a musician. He goes around to different schools and cities to talk about the environment.
Once called “the most popular children’s singer in the English-speaking world” (Washington Post, May 31, 1992) he is well-loved by the children of the 1970s, 1980s and early 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 "Bananaphone," "Baby Beluga," "Down by the Bay," "Shake My Sillies Out," and "Schmenge Polka."
Most of Raffi's children's albums include small, simple, folk instrumentations, prominently featuring Raffi's vocal and guitar work. Early works included contributions from Toronto-area folk musicians, including Ken Whitely and Bruce Cockburn. Raffi also incorporated many world music sounds into his records.
Raffi preferred to play in small intimate settings. In his autobiography, he notes that he turned down a very lucrative offer to perform a concert at Madison Square Garden, because he thought the venue was too large for him to connect to children.
He also wrote that early in his career, he found it difficult to perform for younger kids (under 3 years old) because their short attention span was distracting to him and to the rest of the audience. This led to a hiatus from children's performing in the mid 1980s.
Raffi is currently the president of Troubadour Music Inc., a triple-bottom-line company he founded to produce and promote his work according to his ethical standards.
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 and produced the single, " Cool It", a rockabilly call to action on global warming, recorded 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.
Child Honouring
In recent years, Raffi has devoted himself to "Child Honouring", his vision for creating a humane and sustainable world by addressing the universal needs of children. His "Covenant for Honouring Children" outlines the principles of this philosophy.
In 2006, with Dr. Sharna Olfman, he co-edited an anthology, Child Honouring: How to Turn This World Around, which introduces Child Honouring as a philosophy for restoring communities and ecosystems. It contains chapters by Penelope Leach, Fritjof Capra, David Korten, Riane Eisler, Mary Gordon, Graca Machel, Joel Bakan, Matthew Fox, Barbara Kingsolver, and others. The book’s foreword is by the Dalai Lama. Resisto Dancing: Songs of Compassionate Revolution is the companion music record album for that book.
In a 2006 speech, Iona Campagnolo, Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia, referred to Child Honouring as a "vast change in the human paradigm."
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 [1]. He has also turned down a film proposal for "Baby Beluga" because of the nature of the funding, which was based on exploitative advertising and marketing.
He has long been a firm believer in the beauty of children, and very open about expressing the firmness of his beliefs.
Raffi has been hailed for his work as "Canada's all time children's champion" (Toronto Star, March 10, 1996).
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.
Doctor of Music, from the University of Victoria (honorary degree)
Doctor of letters, from the University of British Columbia (honorary degree)
Fred Rogers Integrity Award (2006)
Raffi is associated with several NGOs, including the Council of Human Development, the Darwin Project Council, the Center for Partnership Studies, the Center for Children's health and the Environment, and the Center for Early Child Development.
