Baby Beluga-core

This morning I found myself sitting inside the sea-green and white playpen that is now the centerpiece of my living room. My 8-month-old has started crawling, and, spoiler alert: she cannot be tamed. I swore I’d never put one of these ugly contraptions in my home, but the moment she started moving, I suddenly understood why every parent caves. (Shoutout to the kind woman on Facebook Marketplace who sold me her son’s under-the-sea-themed baby jail for very cheap in a Trader Joe’s parking lot.) Most of my waking hours (and sometimes the ones where I should be sleeping) are spent cross-legged inside the enclosure while Luna explores her 25-square-foot studio apartment. And while it is endlessly entertaining to watch her shove a hot-pink stacking ring into her mouth for the 90th time in fifteen minutes, my favorite thing we do in lockup is listen to Raffi together.

If you grew up on Mars or are allergic to joy, you might be asking, who the fuck is Raffi? Raffi Cavoukian, who goes strictly by Raffi because icons don’t need last names, is the Armenian-Canadian singer-songwriter behind some of the best and most classic children’s songs, including the certified banger “Baby Beluga.” Raffi is also an activist, an environmentalist, and the man behind one of my favorite Instagram accounts. He’s also a Cancer, which honestly explains everything. Cancers are basically the zodiac’s designated emotional support animal: soft, nurturing, occasionally dramatic, but always loyal. His music embodies the tender Cancerian energy that we all need in our lives, especially in the day and age of live-streamed horrors and Donald Trump (Raffi is staunchly against him, and we love that!!!). Wholesome zodiac energy aside, his music is just … good. There are some jams that straight up sound like Neil Young, except his moon songs are less harvest vibes and more looking at the moon from your window at bedtime vibes.

I didn’t really grow up listening to much Raffi. Not to be all “coolest kid on the block,” but my parents raised me on Fleetwood Mac and Steely Dan. I knew who Raffi was, of course, and as an adult I even found myself listening to him for inspiration when Best Coast made our kids album, Best Kids. After Luna was born, I wavered between two parenting extremes: the side that’s too cool for kids’ music and the side that leans way the hell into kids’ bops (not to be confused with Kidz Bop—those are strictly forbidden in my household!!!). I settled somewhere in the middle and decided Raffi would be a top listen in our home. I started with “Bananaphone” on repeat because it was silly and fun, and I invented a ridiculous little dance to perform for her in the hours between trying to prevent an overtired meltdown and bedtime. I think she liked the song, but she was deep in her potato baby era, so it was hard to tell then whether she even liked me or not. As she moved out of the hashbrown stage, she started responding more to that song and other Raffi hits like “Apples and Bananas” “Everything Grows,” and his fantastic cover of “Octopus’s Garden” (sorry Ringo, but this one belongs to him!). Gradually, Raffi completely took over our home’s airwaves, and before I knew it, I was the one who had become obsessed. Do I think Luna likes him? Sure. But do we listen every day more for me than for her? Absolutely.

The thing about kids’ music is it can be extremely annoying to adult ears. Against my will, “Baby Shark” lives rent-free in my head, and I didn’t even have a kid at the time of its virality. Part of the reason I decided to make a kids’ album in 2018 was to give parents something they could listen to with their kiddos that wasn’t on the Frozen soundtrack (no disrespect, we do stan Frozen in this house). Now that I am actually a parent, I know the feeling of your kid loving a song that you would prefer never to hear again (enter “The Happy Song” by Imogen Heap), but there is no Raffi song that ends up on that list for me. In fact, I sometimes listen to Raffi when I’m not even with Luna. Her wonderful nanny also spends a lot of time in the baby container, and she too listens to a lot of him with her. Sometimes I will be in the kitchen making myself some lunch, and I’ll hear his sweet voice coming from the living room, and I have no choice but to go back to my desk, throw in my AirPods, and put my dude on. One of my favorites to listen to sans child is “Every Child” off his album Raffi Radio. Not only is the guitar tone giving Jerry Garcia, but the lyrics crush me, and well, as a Scorpio sun/Cancer rising, I famously love to feel emotions!!!

Dreams of children free to fly
Free of hunger and war
Clean flowing water and air to share
With dolphins and elephants and whales all around

Every child dreams of peace in this world
Wants a home and a gentle hand to hold
To provide room to grow and to belong
In the loving village of human kindness

Have you ever read anything more relevant to the times we are currently living in? Nearly 19,000 children have been killed in Gaza with the help of our U.S. tax dollars, and I’m sitting in my living room every morning listening to music with my daughter. The absurdity of that sentence should make everyone sick. And that’s exactly why we need Raffi, why we need music that fills our homes with gentleness, teaches our kids compassion, and reminds us what kind of world we should be fighting for.

At 77 years old, Raffi is still out here writing songs filled with hope, as if the world hasn’t given him a million reasons to quit believing a better future is possible. And maybe that’s the point. Hope isn’t about pretending the million reasons don’t exist; it’s about singing about ponies, airplanes, and baby whales anyway. About teaching kids (and reminding adults) that gentleness and joy will always be worth fighting for. Raffi’s music may be written for children, but at this moment, I think it’s the adults who need it most. Funny enough, Raffi never had any children of his own, but I think it is safe to say he is the collective hope-core father we all need, the kind that wears a Life is Good t-shirt and actually means it. I, for one, am very grateful for my surrogate dad, Raffi, in these hellish days on planet earth.

Don’t worry, I went right ahead and made you a playlist of my favorite Raffi jams. I hope you listen to these with your kids, your friend’s kids, or with absolutely zero kids around, and really take in all the magic and tenderness that his musical world has to offer. TLDR: the world is worth loving, even when it feels impossible, and Raffi is a big ole musical band-aid.

xo, Bethany (aka #1 Raffi head).