On Saturday, January 16, “Beluga grads” and children alike gathered at Victoria’s Royal Theatre to sing along with Raffi (Beluga grads are adults who have grown up with Raffi’s music). As soon as the children’s entertainer walked on the stage, it was obvious by the smile on his face that he was excited and ready to entertain the audience.
From the first strum of the guitar, the songs we grew up listening to filled the theatre and children of all ages sung along to their favourite tunes.
You can tell that Raffi has been in the entertainment business for a while by his stage presence and ability to put a smile on every face in the crowd. Every song was accompanied with silly dances, the occasional animal noises, and, of course, the banana phone.
The audience got the chance to let their voices be heard during a sing-along of “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star,” with Raffi harmonizing. Raffi had a really good grasp on keeping the younger audience members entertained with his quirky jokes, with one standout being purposely matching un-rhyming words during “Down by the Bay,” causing bellows of laughter from the children correcting him. Speaking of children, when they got restless, Raffi brought the audience to their feet, singing and clapping along to the beat of the song.
All the classic Raffi tunes brought back nostalgic memories to Beluga grads in the audience, some of whom have their own kids now. The songs remain favourites through generations: that’s an achievement in itself.
As the show drew to a close, a warming, humbled audience welcomed Raffi back onstage for a few encores. Overall, the concert was well put together, and helped me reminisce about the songs I used to sing as a child.
Raffi not only entertained a theatre full of children on a Saturday afternoon, he brought out the child in all of us.