One of Canada’s most successful and best-known singer/songwriter, Joni Mitchell, is now an American citizen, just months after accepting a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2026 Juno Awards ceremony. She was presented with her award by Prime Minister Carney, whom she praised in her acceptance speech, while aiming what appeared to be criticism of US President Donald Trump, saying, “I’m living in the States and you know what’s happening there.” Mitchell, 82, has lived in the US for more than six decades, writing on Instagram the road to US citizenship was, “A journey that began 62 years ago,” alongside a photo of herself at a Department of Homeland Security office holding an American flag. Mitchell has strong roots in Alberta and particularly Calgary. Born Joni Anderson in Fort Macleod, Alta., she moved to the US in 1965 with her former husband, Chuck Mitchell, after spending a year in Calgary in 1963/64. While in Calgary, she studied at the Alberta College of Art and launched her singing career, performing at the Depression Coffee House, as well as other local venues, making radio and TV appearances and appearing at the 1964 Calgary Stampede.Mitchell came to prominence as an influential member of the music movement in California in the late 1960s and 1970s, living in the famous Laurel Canyon. Her hits include Help Me, Both Sides Now, Big Yellow Taxi, A Case of You, Free Man in Paris, and California from her 1971 album, Blue. In a 2006 interview with the Ottawa Citizen, Mitchell described her connection to both the US and Canada, saying, “LA is my workplace, BC is my heartbeat.” Mitchell suffered a brain aneurysm in 2015, which left her unable to speak or walk, from which she recovered, making a return to the stage at the Newport Folk Festival in July 2022. At the Juno Awards last spring, she said the ailment changed her life. “I had a [brain] aneurysm, which changed my life, oddly, for the better,” she said. “I went into a coma, which helped me to quit smoking. And my house filled up with the most wonderful nurses. I was on the road with men for years and years; now I live with a house full of women.” According to a report by the New York Post’s Page Six, director Cameron Crowe is developing a biopic about Mitchell, with Meryl Streep set to portray an older version of Mitchell.
