Joni Mitchell, 80, makes her long-overdue debut performing at the Grammys
It only took 56 years after her debut album, 1968’s “Song to a Seagull,” but folk goddess Joni Mitchell finally made her long-overdue Grammys debut playing at the 2024 ceremony Sunday night.
And if you’re still scratching your head about how it is even possible that Joni Freaking Mitchell — who represents all that is musical excellence — had never performed before on music’s biggest night, you certainly wouldn’t be the only one.
When the 80-year-old icon — who had earlier won Best Folk Album for her 2023 LP “Joni Mitchell at Newport [Live]” — took the stage at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles to sing her 1969 hit “Both Sides, Now,” it was a moment to go down in Grammy history.
And in the twilight of her career and life, it gave an even deeper meaning to “Both Sides, Now.”
It was also restorative justice for an absolute legend who — although she has won nine gramophones previously — has never won any of the Big 4 categories (Album, Record and Song of the Year, plus Best New Artist).
Unless you count when jazz giant Herbie Hancock won Album of the Year for reimagining her songs on 2007’s “River: The Joni Letters.”
The closest Mitchell came to winning AOTY for one of her own LPs was when “Court and Spark” was nominated in 1975.
“Blue” — a certified classic by any measure — wasn’t even nominated. Let that one sink in.
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But until Sunday night, Mitchell was in good company with some other artists for the ages who had never performed at the Grammy Awards.
Other all-timers in that camp include The Beatles, Queen, George Michael, Nirvana, 2Pac and Abba.
In 2015, Mitchell suffered a brain aneurysm and had to relearn how to play the guitar.
“I’m learning. I’m looking at videos on the net to see where to put my fingers,” Mitchell explained to CBS Mornings in 2022. “It’s amazing what an aneurysm knocks out — how to get out of a chair. You don’t know how to get out of bed. You have to learn all these things by rote again.”
She added, “There’s a lot of going back to infancy almost. You have to relearn everything.”
Last summer, Mitchell headlined her first show in more than 20 years in Washington state. In October, she also performed alongside Brandi Carlile and Annie Lennox at Carlile’s Hollywood Bowl show in Los Angeles. She recently announced a second concert for October 2024.
