Joni Mitchell had a live performance at the Grammys for the first time ever.
The 80-year-old "Big Yellow Taxi" singer and a number of other exceptionally talented musicians lit up the stage on Sunday night at the 2024 ceremony held at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.
Before they sang "Both Sides Now" together, backed by Jacob Collier, Allison Russell, Sista Strings, Lucius, and Blake Mills, friend and partner Brandi Carlile gave an introduction. Mitchell, wearing an all-black ensemble, a cap, and her trademark braids, stayed sitting the entire moving piece.
Hours after winning the best folk album award for 2023's "Joni Mitchell at Newport," Mitchell makes her stage debut.
She currently holds ten Grammy Awards in total, including her very first Gramophone, which was awarded to her at the 12th annual Best Folk Performance for "Clouds" in 1970.
In a 2020 interview with The Guardian, Mitchell revealed how her career persevered despite a number of health setbacks, including a terrible fight with polio and an aneurysm in 2015.
"Once again I couldn't walk. I had to learn how again. I couldn't talk. Polio didn't grab me like that, but the aneurysm took away a lot more, really. Took away my speech and my ability to walk," she said at the time.
"And, you know, I got my speech back quickly, but the walking I'm still struggling with. But I mean, I'm a fighter. I've got Irish blood! [long laugh] So you know, I knew, 'Here I go again, another battle.'"
Mitchell was just one of the many celebrities that took the stage on Sunday to perform. Billie Eilish, Olivia Rodrigo, Travis Scott, Dua Lipa, SZA, and U2 were among the other performers.
The latter group made history by becoming the first to have their Grammy performance televised, performing from the Sphere in Las Vegas. Raj Kapoor, the executive producer of the Grammy Awards, had hinted to the song's potent melody on February 1 on Rolling Stone's "Music Now" podcast. "It will be a song that I think everybody knows," Kapoor said, "and if you are a Joni Mitchell fan, it's the song that you want to hear."
Back in 2023, Joni Mitchell's fans already asked why people are only giving her the recognition she's due.
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