Raffi

Career (1970s & 1980s)

Raffi Cavoukian came to Canada in 1958 with his Armenian family and settled in Toronto. He began his career as a folksinger in coffee houses in 1970, but found his niche playing for young children four years later.

For his own Troubadour label, Raffi recorded his debut album, Good Luck Boy, in 1975. He recorded Singable Songs for the Very Young in 1976. Comprising traditional and original material sung with the accompaniment of Ken Whiteley, it eventually sold more than 1,300,000 copies worldwide and remains his best-selling album.

Troubadour issued Raffi's second adult album, Adult Entertainment in 1977 (reissued as Lovelight in 1980) and released seven children's albums from 1977 to 1987: More Singable Songs, The Corner Grocery Store, Baby Beluga, Rise and Shine, Raffi's Christmas Album, One Light, One Sun, and Everything Grows. The first five each exceeded 100,000 copies in Canadian sales; More Singable Songs, 200,000. Total North American sales exceeded 5,650,000 as of 2026. Everything Grows (1987) was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1988 as best children's record.

The videocassettes A Young Children's Concert with Raffi and Raffi in Concert with the Rise and Shine Band were released in 1984 and 1988 respectively, each garnering several awards including the latter's 1990 Gemini Award for best children's program. Two Raffi songbooks were issued in 1987 and a third in 1989; picture books illustrating Raffi's songs were introduced in 1987.

Throughout the 1980s Troubadour Records also has issued LPs by Fred Penner and the Junior Jug Band (see Ken Whiteley). The label's distribution was handled first by A & M then taken over by MCA in the United States in 1990 and in Canada in 1991.

Hiatus and Ecology Activism

In 1989, the long-time environmentalist quit children's music to record Evergreen, Everblue (1990). The album of ecology-themed songs for adults was a commercial failure but was widely used in environmental education. Raffi moved to Vancouver in 1990 and devoted himself to full-time ecology activism. Among his victories on that front was a campaign to eliminate "long-box" cardboard packaging for compact discs.

Career (1990s & 2000s)

Raffi returned to children’s music in 1993 with an titled Raffi on Broadway, followed the next year by Bananaphone (1994) which earned him a Juno Award for best children's album, a gold sales certification and a Grammy Award nomination for best children's record. The Juno-nominated Raffi Radio followed a year later. To mark the 20th anniversary of his debut album, Raffi's own Troubadour Music label released a three-record box set called The Singable Songs Collection in 1996.

Another album, Raffi’s Box of Sunshine, was released in 2000. A number of country music stars (including Billy Gilman, Keith Urban, Marty Stuart, Lari White and Kathy Mattea) contributed to a 2001 tribute album of Raffi favourites called Country Goes Raffi.

In 2002, the artist unveiled Let's Play, his first new album in seven years. The following year, Universal Music Canada released The Best of Raffi as part of its 20th Century Masters series.

Raffi wrote a 1999 autobiography entitled The Life of a Children's Troubadour, and he was the subject of a television documentary called Raffi: It Takes a Village that included footage from a 2000 concert in India. He has written songs inspired by the Dalai Lama and former South African president Nelson Mandela that he has performed in front of both men.

Tours

Paralleling his success on record, Raffi moved from an itinerary of Ontario schools and libraries during the mid-1970s to concert halls by decade's end. Initially he offered both children's and adult programs. In 1979, however, he turned exclusively to children's entertainment.

In 1981 and 1982 he made his initial appearances in Los Angeles and New York. In 1984 he undertook his first major tour in the United States and by 1986 was a dominant figure in the children's music market there, setting a precedent with the high production and packaging values of his recordings.

Raffi toured extensively throughout Canada and the US in 2002 and 2003.

Raffi Foundation for Child Honouring

In the late 1990s, Raffi developed a philosophy called “child honouring” that supports the well-being and education of children through community and promotes environmental welfare across the world. (See Child Welfare in Canada.) The Raffi Foundation for Child Honouring has been active since 2010, and stands for values such as diversity, emotional intelligence, nonviolence, safety, sustainability and ethical commerce. In 2006, Raffi published an anthology titled Child Honouring: How To Turn This World Around, with a foreword by the Dalai Lama.

Did you know?

British Columbia's "Books for Babies" program, which was launched in 2005, provides every new parent in the province with a free child's book and musical CD. In its inaugural year, the book and CD were Raffi's Baby Beluga.

Honours and Awards

Raffi was named a Member of the Order of Canada in 1983, and was inducted into the Order of British Columbia in 2001. In 2025 he was promoted to Companion within the Order of Canada.

The Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (CARAS) presented the Walt Grealis Special Achievement Award to him in 1990, while the SOCAN gave him a Special Achievement Award in 2000 to pay respect to his contributions to Canada's musical heritage (see also RPM). Raffi is a recipient of the United Nations Environmental Achievement Award (1992), and he has been granted honorary degrees from the University of Victoria and the University of British Columbia. He has received a variety of awards and honours, as well as numerous recording industry awards in both Canada and the United States.