IN CONCERT
Raffi
Where: McPherson Playhouse
When: Two shows: Saturday at 1 p.m. and Saturday at 4 p.m.
Tickets: $32.75 to $64 (250-386-6121)
Thrilling news for Baby Beluga devotees. After a decade-long hiatus, Raffi is back on the concert stage.
And the comeback's launch is in Victoria.
His string of Western Canadian dates will be launched with back-to-back shows at McPherson Playhouse on Saturday. The 64-year-old children's entertainer says this marks his official return to the family-concert circuit
"It's been 10 years," said Raffi. "The last family concert in a theatre I did was January 2002 in Seattle. ... Now it's a return to the feeling of enjoying the buzz of a family concert."
If Raffi Cavoukian was a rocker, the comeback would be akin to the return of Bruce Springsteen or even the Beatles. When it comes to children's entertainment, Raffi is a superstar.
The Washington Post deemed him "the most popular children's singer in the English-speaking world."
He's sold more than 15 million albums and DVDs in North America. His megahits include Bananaphone, Down by the Bay and Baby Beluga (that latter is arguably the kiddie equivalent of Stairway to Heaven).
Raffi kept himself busy this past decade launching his Child Honouring Centre project, headquartered on Saltspring Island. The centre is a charitable, non-profit organization advancing his notion of "child honouring," that is, nurturing children and treating them with respect.
This initiative included a book of essays, Child Honouring: How to Turn This World Around, co-edited by Raffi.
The Child Honouring Centre has offered educational art programs for children, and hosted such speakers as author Annie Leonard (The Story of Stuff) and physicist Fritjof Capra.
Aside from the odd casual appearance, Raffi took a complete vacation from the concert stage. But he didn't completely shy from the limelight.
This summer, he was quoted in news reports about the death of Kavna, the beluga at the Vancouver Aquarium. Kavna was the whale that inspired Raffi's Baby Beluga song in the late '70s.
"I wrote an impassioned blog about it," Raffi said. "I said it felt like losing a member of my extended family."
There were other Raffi media sightings. After federal NDP leader Jack Layton died last year, the entertainer wrote a song using Layton's final inspirational letter as lyrics. The composition received a positive endorsement from Olivia Chow, his widow.
Raffi was also publicly critical of sports commentator Don Cherry, saying he acts like a "bully" and sets a poor example for children.
He even called for hockey fans to mute their TVs during Cherry's Coach's Corner segment.
"His shtick has outgrown its usefulness," Raffi told the Times Colonist. "And it didn't set a good example to the kids about the spirit of the game."
Born in Cairo, Egypt, to Armenian parents, Raffi started as a folksinger in Toronto and Montreal before turning to children's entertainment.
His career was launched in 1976 with the album Singable Songs for the Very Young, one of the most popular children's recordings of all time.
Back then, children's records were typically cut-rate offerings relegated to bargain bins. Raffi says he deliberately charged the same list price for Singable Songs for the Very Young as "adult" recordings.
"People responded to it," he said. "They liked the idea of quality music for children."
Throughout his career, Raffi refused to compromise his ideals for commercial gain. He was once approached by the producers of the animated film Shrek.
They proposed making a movie based on the Baby Beluga song. Raffi turned them down, partly because merchandising spinoffs were part of the deal.
"We said, 'We won't stand for that, it's not in the children's best interest.' Well, they'd never heard anybody say those things before," he said.
Raffi believes there are as many as 10 million people in North America between the ages of 18 and 40 who grew up on his music. He calls them "beluga grads."
"My favourite line they say is, 'You were the soundtrack of my childhood.' It's a very wonderful thing to hear. Holy smokes."
achamberlain@timescolonist.com
