Video: Watch Joni Mitchell’s first Grammy performance at 80 years old

Singer and songwriter Joni Mitchell performed her 1969 hit “Both Sides Now” at the Grammy Awards Sunday night. Following her performance, she received the best folk album award for “Joni Mitchell at Newport,” produced by her close friend and fellow songwriter, Brandi Carlile.

As Carlile introduced Michell to the audience, she said, “Whether we know it or not any one of us out here who ever dreamed of becoming a truly self-revealing singer-songwriter did it standing on the shoulders of one, Joni Mitchell,” per People.

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Carlile accompanied Michell’s performance on the the guitar along with Holly Laessig, Jess Wolfe and several others. She’s now a 10-time Grammy recipient.

Mitchell’s performance was all the more impressive, as she had suffered a debilitating brain aneurysm in 2015, which forced her to relearn how to speak and walk. The Deseret News reported that Mitchell relearned the guitar “by watching videos of herself.”

A neurosurgeon at Ronald Reagan UCLA Hospital, Dr. Anthony Wang, told NPR, “To be able to recover to the point of being able to perform as a musician is really incredible.”

In an interview with The Guardian in 2020, Mitchell compared her aneurysm to contracting polio as a child, saying, “The aneurysm took away a lot more, really. Took away my speech and my ability to walk.”

She added, “And, you know, I got my speech back quickly, but the walking I’m still struggling with. But I mean, I’m a fighter. I’ve got Irish blood!”

While Mitchell performed Sunday night sitting, her performance was strong.

One X user commented, “I’m a mess. I have every Joni Mitchell album and in deep gratitude to Elton John and most of all Brandi Carlile for singing with Joni in her living room for years as she relearned to speak let alone sing.”