A ceremony shared on Instagram
Joni Mitchell has become a US citizen, a step the Canada-born singer-songwriter disclosed on her Instagram account. She posted footage of her citizenship ceremony along with a photograph of herself standing next to an American flag. The caption she attached described a journey that began 62 years ago. Mitchell is 82 years old. The naturalization means she can now vote in US elections, a right she had previously complained she did not have.[S1][S2][S3][S4][S5][S6][S7][S8]
From Alberta to California
Mitchell was born in Fort Macleod, Alberta, in 1943, and her family eventually settled in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. She began performing at folk clubs there before moving on to gigs in Calgary and Toronto. In Toronto she met the US folk singer Chuck Mitchell; the two married in 1965, and she moved to the United States. The marriage ended two years later, but by then Mitchell had already made a name for herself as a distinctive and mellifluous voice on the lively US folk circuit.[S1]
Her debut album arrived in 1968. Using its royalties, she soon relocated to Laurel Canyon in Los Angeles, where she recorded Ladies of the Canyon, her first gold-selling album. She has remained based in California and currently lives in Santa Barbara.[S1]
A return to the stage and a film ahead
Shine, which came out in 2007, stands as Mitchell's latest studio record. Following a brain aneurysm in 2015, she withdrew from public view for a number of years while she recovered. In 2022 she stepped back onto the stage, appearing unannounced at the Newport folk festival, and since then she has performed a string of star-studded shows billed as Joni Jam.[S1]
A film about Mitchell's life is also being developed, with Cameron Crowe attached as director since work on it started in the early 2020s. At a party earlier this year, music executive Clive Davis remarked that Meryl Streep is set to play Mitchell on screen.[S1]
