Joni Mitchell performed her first full concert in 23 years on Saturday in Washington State.
The 79-year-old Canadian music icon appeared at the Gorge to perform some of her beloved songs, including “Both Sides Now,” “Help Me” and “Big Yellow Taxi.”
Mitchell has not done a full show since the Both Sides Now tour in 2000. After suffering a debilitating brain aneurysm in 2015, she has made only a few public appearances, including accepting the 2022 MusiCares Person of the Year honour in April 2022 and the Kennedy Center Honours in 2021. This past March, Mitchell was honoured with the U.S. Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song – making her the first Canadian to receive it.
Last July, Mitchell made a surprise appearance at the Newport Folk Festival in Rhode Island, where she performed with friends like Brandi Carlile and Marcus Mumford.
For Saturday’s sold-out show in front of about 27,000 people (including Canadian actor Dan Levy), Mitchell remained seated in an armchair while joined by Carlile and other guest artists, including Annie Lennox and Canada’s Sarah McLachlan (who sang “Blue”).
She explained that her 1974 song “Raised on Robbert” was about a prostitute in Saskatoon and shared memories from her phenomenal music career.
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Mitchell was taken aback when the crowd held up their phones with their flashlights on during her performance of “Shine.” She said: “That was a real spectacle … thank you for that.”
In addition to her own songs, Mitchell and friends covered Gershwin’s “Summertime,” Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers’ “Why Do Fools Fall in Love?” and the Leiber and Stoller classic “Love Potion No. 9.”
Mitchell ended the show with “Young at Heart,” made famous by Frank Sinatra, and then thanked the audience for coming. “It was a beautiful experience," she said.