Joni Mitchell to make Grammy performance debut at Feb. 4 ceremony

Revered Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell is set to make her Grammy Awards performance debut at this year’s ceremony next Sunday.

A statement from Grammys organizer the Recording Academy says the performance will mark Mitchell’s first at the awards after 18 previous nominations and nine wins.

The 80-year-old is nominated in the best folk album category for “Joni Mitchell at Newport,” a live album recorded in June 2022, in this year’s edition of the annual awards.

Mitchel, described by the academy as “one of the most important female recording artists of the rock era,” also received its lifetime achievement award in 2002.

Last year, Mitchell became the first Canadian to collect the prestigious Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song since it was established in 2007.

A brain aneurysm in 2015 had cast doubt on whether Mitchell would ever perform again, but she made a triumphant return at the Newport Folk Festival and recorded the album for which she’s now nominated at this year’s Grammys.

Mitchell is widely regarded as one of the greatest singer-songwriters of her time, with best-known works including “Both Sides Now” and “Big Yellow Taxi.”

She spent her elementary and high school years in Saskatoon, where she gave some of her first professional performances at a coffee house.

Mitchell’s early career took her to Calgary, Toronto, Detroit, New York and eventually California, where she secured a record deal in 1967.

She was honoured with the Governor general’s Lifetime Artistic Achievement award in 1996 and an induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame the following year.