Raffi @ Paramount Theatre

📆 Saturday, September 23rd
⏰ Doors @ 1 pm | Show @ 2 pm
📍 The Paramount Theatre: 911 Pine Street, Seattle
📞 (206) 682-1414
🎟 Start @ $35

That burst I just felt in my heart isn’t because of age—although maybe?—but because I saw that preeminent kids’ entertainer Raffi is coming to the Paramount Theatre. And the show is selling just as well as anybody else coming through the downtown venue, be it Ed Sheeran or the Psychedelic Furs. Do you know why? Because Raffi rules.

The Canadian Armenian Raffi Cavoukian has been a self-proclaimed “children’s troubadour” since his first album in the mid-1970s, and we’re going on five generations who have been blessed with his folk-twinged singalongs. With quirky originals like “Apples and Bananas” (the way nursery school me loved to scream the final verse—”upples and bununus!”—cannot be overstated) and covers of spirituals like “He’s Got the Whole World,” he’s proven to be educationally minded, linguistically impish, and socially conscious.

He’s also timeless. My nephew loves Raffi just as much as I did at his age 37 years ago. I asked my sister to interview the two-year-old:

Nephew: “I like Raffi!”
Sister: “Why?”
Nephew: “Because I like him!”

Truer words.

Heck, it doesn’t matter if you have a kid if you want to enjoy some live Raffi. There’s a whole subsection of fans called Beluga Grads (#belugagrads) who will probably come out in droves. Regardless, if you have memories of when there was nothing better than hitting play (on vinyl, tape, CD, mp3, whatever) and going “ring ring ring ring ring ring ring Bananaphoooooooooooooooooone,” this show is for you.

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