Joni Mitchell sang along to her 1970 classic “Big Yellow Taxi” during the taping of the MusiCares 2022 Person of the Year gala last Friday.
It was the first time in nearly a decade that the Canadian music legend – who suffered a brain aneurysm in 2015 – has performed in public.
Mitchell, using a cane and aided by her physical therapist, moved and sang along as stars like Brandi Carlile, Jon Batiste, Mickey Guyton and Lauren Daigle sang “Big Yellow Taxi.”
Mitchell, 78, was honoured inside the Marquee Ballroom of the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Among the performances was Beck doing “The Jungle Line,” St. Vincent singing “Court and Spark,” Billy Porter doing “Both Sides Now” and John Legend putting his spin on “The River.”
Carlile, who served as co-artistic director of the gala with Batiste, performed “Woodstock” accompanied by Stephen Stills on guitar.
“Everybody was splendid,” Mitchell said in her brief acceptance speech. “It just kept getting better and better and better. I can retire now and just let other people do it.”
Mitchell was announced last August as the MusiCares Person of the Year, becoming the eighth female solo artist to be honoured since 1991 and only the second Canadian, after Neil Young in 2010. MusiCares funds programs and services that assist people in the music community.
The show will be broadcast later this year.
On Sunday, Mitchell was back on stage in the same room to accept a Grammy for Best Historical Album for Joni Mitchell Archives – Vol. 1: The Early Years (1963–1967). She later showed up on the prime time Grammys show at the MGM Grand Garden Arena to introduced a performance by Carlile.