Joni Mitchell made a rare public appearance Sunday night to accept another Grammy Award for her collection. Mitchell, 78, also attended the MusiCares Person of the Year event on Friday night to accept the honor, which honors a musician’s career and philanthropy. The “Big Yellow Taxi” singer has won 10 Grammys.
The Best Historical Album award was among those handed out by the Recording Academy before the Grammys broadcast began on CBS at 8 p.m. ET. Mitchell won the award for her collection Joni Mitchell Archives – Vol. 1: The Early Years (1963-1967). Mitchell won her first Grammy in 1969 for Best Folk Performance for Clouds. In 2002, she was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award and won Album of the Year for her contributions to Herbie Hancock’s 2008 tribute album River: The Joni Letters.
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On Friday, Hancock was among those who paid tribute to Mitchell during the MusiCares Person of the Year concert at the MGM Grand Las Vegas ballroom. Hancock performed Michell’s song “Hejira” on the piano just before Dave Grohl’s teenage daughter Violet Grohl played Mitchell’s “Help Me,” reports NPR. Brandi Carlile performed “Woodstock,” while the night ended with everyone at the show singing “The Circle Game” and “Big Yellow Taxi.”
“When I first heard Joni Mitchell, it was 1968, and I was 15 years old,” Cyndi Lauper said during the concert. “I had never heard anyone sing so intimately about what it was like to be a young woman navigating this world.” Lauper recited the Mitchell lyrics that mean the most to her before performing “Magdelene Laundry.”
Mitchell’s public appearances have been few and far between recent years since she suffered a brain aneurysm rupture in 2015. In December 2021, she attended the Kennedy Center Honors, which celebrated her work. “I always think that polio was a rehearsal for the rest of my life,” Mitchell said in December, reports The Guardian. “I’ve had to come back several times from things. And this last one was a real whopper. But, you know, I’m hobbling along, but I’m doing all right!”
Mitchell recorded 19 solo albums between 1968 and 2007, often moving from folk to rock to jazz throughout her career. She has been re-releasing her work in box sets, with Joni Mitchell Archives – Vol. 2: The Reprise Years (1968-1971) already available. Blue Highlights, a collection of alternate versions of songs from her iconic album Blue included in the box, will be released on its own on April 23.
