Raffi's still singing for kids, nearly 50 years in
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Photo illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Photo: Billie Woods
Decades after he recorded "Baby Beluga" and "Down by the Bay," children's folk singer Raffi is still making music — and parents who grew up with him are playing his songs for their own kids.
What he's saying: "It's something that when I began this work almost 50 years ago, I could barely imagine," says Raffi Cavoukian, the Armenian-Canadian musician who's gone by just "Raffi" since he started making children's music.
- Folk singing had been a struggle for Raffi early on, he says, until he released an album for kids in 1976. "Singable Songs for the Very Young" took off, and helped him see music as core to children's social and emotional learning.
- "You never know what you're meant to be until you stumble onto it sometime, and I'm so glad that music for children tugged at my heart and became a vocation," Raffi, 77, tells Axios in his familiar, soulful baritone.
The latest: Now an activist passionate about children's well-being, environmental causes and politics (which he's outspoken about on Threads), Raffi has released a new single: "ABC Democracy."
- It's a lively tune that rhymes "democracy" with "Choosing well, living free" and "A right to live, a right to be."
- "In the last two or three decades, I actually gave myself permission to write songs about world events, inspired by world leaders," he says. Raffi's catalog includes tunes for Nelson Mandela, Greta Thunberg and Jane Goodall. Fun fact: Goodall made the chimp sounds for her song.
- He hopes "ABC Democracy" becomes a jumping off point for civics discussion — a democracy study guide is posted on his website.
Zoom in: "Baby Beluga" remains his signature song, with more than 105 million Spotify streams.
- Even though it's not a bedtime lullaby — It features horns and whale sounds! — "parents will say at night, that's the song that will soothe my child," Raffi says. (And this reporter has found it to be the only song that can, on a dime, calm a crying toddler in the car.)
- He has theories as to why. "There's something comforting about the line 'is the water warm/ is your mama home with you so happy,'" he says. Plus, the "almost Dixieland jazz horn thing going on" in the last verse adds some "whimsy" to the recording.
Now, "Beluga grads" (Raffi's term for adult fans) are giving that love back.
- They fill YouTube videos and Reddit threads with effusive, nostalgic comments, especially after Raffi released a new "Baby Beluga" verse for them.
- Raffi says parents have told him that his music has helped with loss, helped their non-speaking kids emotionally regulate, and has been the soundtrack for their childhoods.
"It is the honor of my lifetime to continue to be a friend to millions of families," he says.
