Music icon Joni Mitchell reduced some of music’s biggest stars to tears at the 2024 Grammys as she took to the stage for an incredibly poignant performance of her hit song Both Sides Now – nine years after suffering a brain aneurysm that left her unable to walk, talk, or play the guitar.
The 80-year-old singing sensation looked frail but confident as she sang to the star-studded crowd from an ornate throne on the Grammys stage.
With her long white-blonde hair styled in two long braids, Joni held an ornate cane in one hand as her throne slowly rotated to reveal her to the emotional crowd, many of whom began breaking down in tears soon after she uttered her first note.
Joni’s performance, her first-ever at the Grammy Awards, comes nearly 60 years after she first kicked off her illustrious music career – during which she has won an impressive 10 Grammys, as well as a lifetime achievement award.
Music icon Joni Mitchell reduced some of music’s biggest stars to tears at the 2024 Grammys as she took to the stage for an incredibly poignant performance of her hit song Both Sides Now
The 80-year-old’s poignant Grammys appearance comes nine years after she suffered a near-fatal brain aneurysm that left her unable to walk, talk, or play the guitar
Joni sat in an ornate thrown that slowly spun around to reveal her to the crowd
But her appearance at this year’s awards ceremony was perhaps her most important yet – a moment that captured the hearts of more than one A-list guest.
Meryl Streep and her daughter Mamie Gummer were both seen with tears in their eyes as the camera panned to the audience, while Dua Lipa and Beyonce were also caught welling up during the emotive song.
As her performance drew to a close, Joni received a standing ovation from the A-list crowd, during which several other faces were seen struggling to compose their emotions, including a bleary-eyed Taylor Swift, as well as Beyonce and her husband Jay-Z.
Joni’s performance followed an incredibly poignant introduction by fellow music icon Brandi Carlile, who described the singer as her ‘hero’, ‘the matriarch of imagination’ and ‘a true renaissance’, before going on to praise her for overcoming so many challenges throughout her life.
‘Whether we know it or not, any one of us out here who ever dreamed of becoming a truly self-revealing singer songwriter did it standing on the shoulders of one Joni Mitchell,’ Brandi began.
‘Joni is one of the most influential and emotionally generous creators in human history. She redefined the very purpose of a song to reflect the contents of a person’s soul.
‘And before she took this leap, the popular song was observational, it was brilliant and influential, of course, but the exhilarating risk that we all now take by turning ourselves inside out for all the world to see, started, as far as I can tell, with Joni Mitchell doing it first.
‘She’s like the first person to strip down at a skinny dipping party and take that awkward terrifying leap before everyone else eventually joyfully follows.’
Joni quickly reduced the Grammys’ celebrity guests to tears, with Meryl Streep and her daughter Mamie Gummer both seen with tears in their eyes as the camera panned to them
Dua Lipa and Beyonce were also caught welling up during the emotive song
As the entire audience stood to give Joni a well-deserved ovation, Taylor Swift was seen welling up while applauding her
Music star Olivia Rodrigo also appeared incredibly moved by Joni’s performance
However, Brandi noted, music success was far from Joni’s most important life goal.
‘In some ways, she didn’t have a choice but to take these leaps. She was too preoccupied with basic survival,’ the country and folk-rock star continued.
‘Surviving poverty, polio, and as of 10 years ago, a near-fatal brain aneurysm. She didn’t dwell too much on how her art was received because she was too busy re-learning to speak, let alone sing.
‘She’s learned to walk three times.
‘Joni just turned 80, my friends! But we all know she’s timeless.
‘If we are so lucky that history remembers any of us, one thing I know for sure is that it will remember that we lived in the time of Joni Mitchell.
‘Today she just won the Grammy for Best Folk Album, 56 years into her singular career.’
Joni accepted her Grammy Award for Joni Mitchell At Newport [Live], which was recorded during her surprise performance at the 2022 Newport Folk Festival, earlier in the evening when several trophies were handed out before the live broadcast in an attempt to cut back on the length of the ceremony.
Her 10th Grammy win is just the latest in a long line of successes for the musician, who was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame back in 1997 and also boasts an array of other accolades.
Joni was introduced by fellow music icon Brandi Carlile, who then joined her ‘hero’ for the performance, sitting alongside her as she sang
Earlier in the day, Joni walked the red carpet at a pre-event to accept her 10th Grammy
Before bringing her out on stage, Brandi drew attention to the many struggles that Joni (seen left in 1979 and right in 1974) has faced
As well as suffering an aneurysm in 2015, Joni also suffered with polio when she was just nine
However it is likely all the more meaningful given that it comes nearly a decade after a near-fatal brain aneurysm that left Joni completely unable to sing, play the guitar, or even walk and talk.
At the time, a statement from her team revealed that she ‘was found unconscious in her home’ and ‘regained consciousness’ while she was being transported via ambulance to a hospital in the Los Angeles area.
Soon after, she was reported to be recovering while undergoing tests and ‘awake and in good spirits.’
Many initially assumed that Joni would never perform again, but after several years of intense physical therapy and practice, she eventually managed to regain much of her previous skills – reigniting her natural talent for live performances.
In the past two years alone, Joni has performed live on several occasions, including at the Newport event in 2022, as well as alongside her close friend Brandi at the Hollywood Bowl just last year.
In 2022, she was also honored with The Library of Congress Gershwin Prize.
Joni has also previously revealed that she suffers from a condition called Morgellons disease, telling the Los Angeles Times in 2010 that it causes ‘fibers in a variety of colors [to] protrude out of my skin like mushrooms after a rainstorm: they cannot be forensically identified as animal, vegetable or mineral.’
However, the condition doesn’t have a known organic basis and is believed to instead to be a delusional psychiatric condition.
The singer – who was born in Alberta, Canada – also battled polio as a child, having been diagnosed with the illness at the tender age of nine, which left her without full strength in her left hand and therefore forced to use alternative tunings for her guitar.
Still, Joni refused to let the illness prevent her from pursuing her love of music, working her way slowly up the ladder, beginning with local performances for her friends and family before landing gigs at small jazz clubs in Saskatoon.