Grammys 2024: Frail Joni Mitchell, 80, leaves A-list guests in TEARS as she performs show-stopping rendition of Both Sides Now while sat in throne – 10 years after near-fatal brain aneurysm

Music icon Joni Mitchell brought some of music’s biggest stars to tears at the 2024 Grammys when she took the stage for an incredibly moving performance of her hit Both Sides Now – nine years after suffering a brain aneurysm that left her unable to walk. walking and talking. or play guitar.

The 80-year-old singing sensation looked frail but confident as she sang to the star-studded audience from an ornate throne on the Grammys stage.

With her long white-blonde hair in two long braids, Joni held an ornate walking stick in one hand as her throne slowly spun to reveal her to the emotional crowd, many of whom soon burst into tears after she spoke her first note.

Joni’s performance, her first ever at the Grammy Awards, comes nearly 60 years after she first began her illustrious music career – during which she has won an impressive 10 Grammys, as well as a Lifetime Achievement Award.

But her performance 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 on edge during the emotional song.

As her performance came to an end, Joni received a standing ovation from the A-list audience, with several other faces seen struggling to keep their emotions in check, including a blue-eyed Taylor Swift, as well as Beyonce and her husband Jay. Z.

Joni’s performance followed an incredibly moving introduction by fellow music icon Brandi Carlile, who described the singer as her “hero,” “the matriarch of the imagination” and “a true renaissance,” before going on to praise her for overcoming so many challenges during her lifetime. to live.

“Whether we know it or not, everyone here who ever dreamed of becoming a truly self-revealing singer-songwriter did so 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 purpose of a song to reflect the contents of one’s soul.

“And before she took this leap, the popular song was observational, it was brilliant and influential, of course, but the exciting risk we’re all taking now by turning ourselves inside out for all the world to see began, as far as I knew I know, Joni Mitchell does it first.

“She’s like the first person to strip naked at a nude party and make that awkward, terrifying leap before everyone else finally joyfully follows.”

However, Brandi noted that music success was far from Joni’s main goal in life.

“In some ways she had no choice but to make these jumps. She was too concerned with surviving,” the country and folk rock star continued.

‘Surviving poverty, polio and, for the past ten years, a near-fatal brain aneurysm. She didn’t think too much about the reception of her art because she was too busy relearning how to speak, let alone sing.

‘She learned to walk three times.

‘Joni just turned 80, my friends! But we all know she is ageless.

“If we are so lucky that history remembers someone, I know one thing for sure: she will remember that we lived in the time of Joni Mitchell.

“Today she just won the Grammy for Best Folk Album, 56 years after her extraordinary 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 presented before the live broadcast in an effort 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 in 1997 and also has a string of other honors.

However, it’s probably all the more meaningful because it comes almost a decade after a near-fatal brain aneurysm, which left Joni completely unable to sing, play guitar or even walk and talk.

A statement from her team at the time revealed that she was “found unconscious in her home” and “regained consciousness” while being transported by ambulance to a Los Angeles-area hospital.

Soon after, she was reported to be recovering while undergoing tests and was “awake and cheerful.”

Many initially assumed that Joni would never perform again, but after several years of intensive physical therapy and practice, she was eventually able to regain many of her previous skills, reigniting her natural talent for live performance.

In the past two years alone, Joni has performed live several times, including at the 2022 Newport event, and last year alongside her good friend Brandi at the Hollywood Bowl.

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. She told the Los Angeles Times in 2010 that it causes “colored fibers to stick out of my skin like mushrooms after a rain shower: they can’t be examined forensically.” identified as animal, vegetable or mineral.’

However, the condition has no known organic basis and is instead believed to be a delusional psychiatric disorder.

The singer – born in Alberta, Canada – also battled polio as a child, after being diagnosed with the disease at the age of nine, which left her without full strength in her left hand and therefore forced her to use alternative tunings. guitar.

Still, Joni refused to let the disease stop her from pursuing her love of music and slowly worked her way up, starting with local performances for her friends and family before landing gigs at small jazz clubs in Saskatoon.