Joni Mitchell Will Make a Uncommon Televised Look on the Grammys

When viewers tune in to the sixty fourth annual Grammy Awards on Sunday evening, they are going to see some acquainted celebrities on the microphone as presenters, together with Megan Thee Stallion, Questlove, Dua Lipa, Lenny Kravitz and Jared Leto.

And one stunning one: Joni Mitchell.

It is going to be a uncommon public look for Mitchell, 78, the revered singer and composer from Canada who was one of many defining figures of the singer-songwriter motion of the Nineteen Sixties and ’70s. By no means one for the limelight, Mitchell has stored a really low public profile since she had an aneurysm in 2015, and spent subsequent years in gradual restoration.

The final yr or two has introduced a wave of recognition for Mitchell. Her 1971 album “Blue,” which had little business affect upon its launch however was lengthy a connoisseur’s favourite, was broadly celebrated final yr, upon its fiftieth anniversary. In December, she was awarded a Kennedy Heart Honor, and a sampling of her songs, like “Huge Yellow Taxi” and “Each Sides Now,” had been carried out by Brandi Carlile, Brittany Howard and Norah Jones. In a speech through the White Home reception for the occasion, she addressed her well being, saying, “I’m hobbling alongside however I’m doing all proper.” She even joked in an on-camera interview on the purple carpet, “I’m sufficiently old to have been honored earlier than.”

In a taped interview final yr, for a digital Grammy gala hosted by the music govt Clive Davis, she gave an overview of her profession, saying that the folks music world of the mid-Nineteen Sixties was “territorial” about repertoire, and that she realized “the one manner round this dilemma is to start to jot down your individual songs.” She additionally advised Davis that she had solely not too long ago realized the breadth of her affect; for years, she mentioned, “all I used to be conscious of had been unhealthy opinions.”

Mitchell final launched an album of recent songs in 2007. In January, she requested Spotify to take away her music after Neil Younger did the identical, as a protest towards the streaming service over its function in giving a platform to Covid-19 vaccine misinformation.

On Friday, Mitchell may even be the honoree in a gala for MusiCares, a Grammy-affiliated charity that helps needy musicians, with Cyndi Lauper, Stephen Stills, Herbie Hancock, Jon Batiste, Sara Bareilles, Beck, Carlile and others performing her music.