Joni Mitchell, 82, becomes a US citizen after 62 years

By Elena Vasquez

Joni Mitchell became a US citizen at the age of 82. The Canada-born singer-songwriter announced the milestone herself, posting footage of her citizenship ceremony to her Instagram account on October 14, 2026.

The post also included a photograph of Mitchell standing next to an American flag. She captioned it: "A journey that began 62 years ago."

The arithmetic is straightforward. Sixty-two years before her announcement places the journey's start in 1964 — the period when Mitchell first moved to the United States, in the mid-1960s, as her announcement implies. She has now crossed the line from resident to citizen after nearly six decades in the country.

What changes for Mitchell now?

The most concrete consequence is the franchise. As a citizen, Mitchell can now vote in US elections — something she had publicly complained she was unable to do as a non-citizen resident.

That complaint is now resolved by the ceremony itself. For a figure of Mitchell's standing, the shift turns a long-standing grievance into a civic fact, sealed at 82.

Why the announcement carries weight

Mitchell chose to make the moment public rather than private. The Instagram post — ceremony footage plus the flag photograph — frames citizenship as a milestone worth documenting, not a routine administrative step.

Her caption compresses the story into six words: "A journey that began 62 years ago." The sentence carries her voice: plain, declarative, and measured, in keeping with a songwriter who has spent a career choosing exact words.

The timing also matters. Mitchell became a citizen at 82, more than half a century after arriving in the country whose elections she can now enter as a voter.

The takeaway

A Canadian-born artist who moved to the US in the mid-1960s has, at 82, formally joined the electorate she once said she was shut out of — and she marked it in her own words, on her own channel.