Raffi has been the world’s best-selling and most influential children’s entertainer, delighting successive generations of kids and their parents with his playful, exuberant personality and his irresistibly infectious songs for over two generations. “Baby Beluga” is one of the most enduring songs in the children’s music canon as well as a catchy one. More than two million copies of the album have been sold since the original release on July 10, 1980, and the song has been streamed hundreds of millions of time across digital music services. “I think that kids love how the song makes them feel,” Raffi says. “The song plants a seed of love in young children, love for a magnificent aquatic creature. What you love, you want to protect. So, love for a beluga is symbolic for a greater love of our world of wonders, our big, beautiful planet.”
This year, Raffi is celebrating 40 years since he released “Baby Beluga,” a foundational song for the children’s music genre. When considering the art direction for a music video to commemorate the song’s enduring popularity, Raffi turned to the people who have been listening to the song their entire lives. Parents were requested to submit drawings that reflected the lyrical content of the song and its Earth-friendly message, and hundreds of children of all ages submitted their creations. The animator YOUSEF (Tame Impala, Robbie Williams, Iggy Pop), then brought a handful of the selected drawings to life as live animations.
Fatherly.com premiered the new “Baby Beluga” music video. Entertainment editor Ryan Britt, says it “perfectly captures the gentle spirit of children’s imaginations everywhere .”
Millions of people grew up with “Baby Beluga,” which follows a little white whale through his happy day, a hit song that helped spark both a public appreciation of a threatened species and Raffi’s own climate activism.
In July, Raffi and cellist Yo-Yo Ma released a 40th anniversary version of “Baby Beluga” as part of Ma’s Songs of Comfort web series, garnering millions of streams within the first week. The celebration continued with the launch of Raffi’s official YouTube channel at Youtube.com/Raffi, and a new web store offering a range of special bundles around the beloved little white whale.
GIVEAWAY: Win Raffi’s original “Baby Beluga” CD. Comment on this blog post with your favorite Raffi song. Open to US residents only. Winner announced on September 7, 2020.
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Down by the bay!!
Carlie, You are the winner. Please send me an email at BeltwayBambinos@gmail.com for info.