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Raffi music biography continued...

in Cairo, Egypt, Raffi immigrated to Canada with his family when he was ten. He taught himself to play the guitar while in high school, and attended the University of Toronto for several years before dropping out to work full time as a folk musician. In 1974 Raffi's mother-in-law asked him to perform at the day-care center she ran. His wife, Debi Pike, a kindergarten teacher, taught him a few songs, and he enjoyed entertaining the children so much that he recorded and self-distributed his first record, Singable Songs for the Very Young. Soon, his reputation began to spread through word-of-mouth. Throughout the 70s and early 80s, Raffi's songs became favorites of schoolteachers and day-care workers, and in 1983 he was awarded the Order of Canada, that country's highest civilian award, for his work with children. Once Raffi granted A&M distribution rights in 1984, record sales took off. More than a million copies of Singable Songs for the Very Young have been sold, and it remains the strongest selling of his nine albums. Some of Raffi's most famous songs over the years have included "Bananaphone," "Baby Beluga," "Down By the Bay," "Shake My Sillies Out," and "Schmenge Polka." 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. In recent years he has also devoted himself to "Child Honouring", his vision for creating a humane and sustainable world by addressing the universal needs of children. Through all of his success, Raffi has refused to make commercial endorsements, and that is one of the reasons fans young and old endorse him.