Joni Mitchell Sworn In as U.S. Citizen 62 Years After Arriving

By Marcus Bennett

Joni Mitchell is now a citizen of the United States. The Canada-born songwriter, 81, formalized her dual citizenship in a ceremony documented in an Instagram post shared Tuesday, captioned "A journey that began 62 years ago." The video shows Mitchell taking the oath while a crowd applauds.

The milestone closes a six-decade American chapter. Born in Alberta and raised in Saskatoon from the age of nine, Mitchell first came to the United States in the mid-1960s, settling in Detroit after her marriage to Chuck Mitchell. She lived briefly in New York before moving to Los Angeles in 1968, where she became a leading figure in the Laurel Canyon folk scene. She currently lives in Santa Barbara.

What does her new citizenship change?

The most immediate answer is political: Mitchell can now vote. During a "Joni Jam" performance at the Hollywood Bowl in 2024, she told the audience: "Fuck Donald Trump. I wish I could vote…I'm a Canadian. I'm one of those lousy immigrants."

Her naturalization is not, in other words, an endorsement of the current U.S. administration. Mitchell has openly opposed President Donald Trump. Pitchfork has reached out to Mitchell's representatives and to Brandi Carlile for comment.

Her relationship with her native country has been complicated too. A statement on her website from 2006 read: "while she still sees herself as a Canadian first—she is both a Canadian and U.S. citizen—Ms. Mitchell believes the country is sliding dangerously close to assimilation with the U.S., politically, economically and culturally."

That statement, nearly two decades old, framed her dual identity as a fact already settled in her own mind. Tuesday's ceremony made it a fact settled in law.

For cataloguers, list-makers and cultural institutions, the update is concrete. As Pitchfork noted, editors of the New York Times' Greatest Living American Songwriters list now have "a well-deserved update" to consider. Whether critics reclassify the author of "Blue" and "Court and Spark" as an American songwriter, a Canadian one, or both, will be a running question as her citizenship settles into public record.

Mitchell has not yet said whether she intends to vote in an upcoming election. Given her 2024 remarks at the Hollywood Bowl, the prospect of her first ballot seems less a hypothetical than a schedule.