Joni Mitchell celebrates new American citizenship after 62 years living in the United States

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Folk music legend Joni Mitchell became a U.S. citizen on Tuesday, the end of “a journey that began 62 years ago,” she wrote on social media.

Mitchell, 82, on Wednesday posted a photo of herself on X standing in front of a large U.S. flag while holding a smaller one. She also included a four-second video of the citizenship ceremony in which hoots and applause are heard after the administrator calls out, “Joni Mitchell, Canada.”

A journey that began 62 years ago. https://t.co/y1eGhP3kBo

She was born Roberta Joan Anderson on Nov. 7, 1943, in Fort Macleod, Alberta, Canada, to Bill, a grocer, and Myrtle, a schoolteacher, according to her official site. The family moved to Saskatchewan after World War II, eventually settling in Saskatoon, the city she considers her hometown.

Folk singer and songwriter Joni Mitchell strums her guitar outside the Revolution Club in London in 1968. (Central Press / Getty Images) The singer of hits including “Big Yellow Taxi,” “River,” “Both Sides, Now” and “California” first arrived in the States as a relative unknown in the summer of 1965 along with her musician husband Chuck Mitchell. The couple landed in Detroit, but Joni moved to New York City in 1967 after divorcing. Later that year, she moved in with singer David Crosby in Southern California, and in 1968, she bought a Laurel Canyon bungalow with Crosby’s bandmate, Graham Nash, becoming a central figure in the area’s bustling folk scene.

In 1974, she purchased a Spanish Colonial Bel-Air house that she still owns. A five-bedroom Malibu beachfront property, which she later acquired, is currently listed for sale for $25-$27 million.

Voices Understanding Joni Mitchell’s genius from both sides now In ‘Traveling: On the Path of Joni Mitchell,’ critic Ann Powers shows us a far more interesting way to regard Mitchell than the fan’s ‘smothering hug.’

Mitchell won the first of her 11 Grammy Awards for folk performance for “Clouds” in 1970. Her most recent was awarded in February when she was honored for historical album along with Patrick Milligan and Bernie Grundman for “Joni Mitchell Archives – Volume 4: The Asylum Years (1976-1980).”

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Deborah Day is an assistant editor for entertainment news on the Fast Break Desk, the Los Angeles Times’ breaking news team. She has worked in a range of online editorial roles, most recently as news editor at Entertainment Weekly’s website; senior editor for TV and streaming on Rotten Tomatoes; executive editor for Premiere’s film website; editor in chief for Dennis Publishing’s digital group, including the websites of Maxim, Stuff, Blender and The Week magazines; and as a contributor on Yahoo, Los Angeles magazine’s website and The Wrap. A native of New Orleans, Day graduated from Louisiana State University’s School of Mass Communication.