Joni Mitchell became a U.S. citizen so she could vote, while keeping the Canadian citizenship she says she’ll never give up. The 82-year-old announced the news on Oct. 13, calling it “a journey that began 62 years ago.”
“I became a citizen so I could vote. I didn’t give up my Canadian citizenship, and I never will,” Mitchell said in an Oct. 15 statement. “I’m a proud Canerican like Neil Young.” Young became a U.S. citizen in January 2020 so he could vote, too.
At the ceremony, she was called up as “Joni Mitchell, Canada” to loud applause. She wore a red beret and a navy blue floral shirt and held a small American flag.
Mitchell now lives in Santa Barbara, where the Oct. 19 voter-registration deadline gives her time to register for the 2026 midterms. Former partner Graham Nash, a U.S. citizen since 1978, commented on her announcement: “Congrats, Joan! Just in time to vote!”
Born in Fort Macleod, Alberta, in 1943, Mitchell entered the U.S. in 1965 after marrying American folk singer Chuck Mitchell. The couple set up home in Detroit, in an apartment she later called her “tenement castle” in “I Had a King.” Their marriage ended around 1967.
She eventually settled in Los Angeles and became part of the Laurel Canyon music scene. In 1968, she bought a house on Lookout Mountain Avenue that became a gathering place for musicians. After a rainy day spent with Mitchell, Nash wrote the CSNY song “Our House” there.
At a 2024 Hollywood Bowl performance, she directed an expletive at then-presidential candidate Donald Trump and spoke about being unable to vote as a Canadian citizen. She jokingly called herself “one of those lousy immigrants.”
Her political commentary also runs through NEWS, a book of 23 of her paintings responding to the 24-hour news cycle, due around Nov. 4, shortly before her 83rd birthday on Nov. 7. She describes it as “a song not for the ears, but for the eyes” and says, “It is an artist’s duty to speak up.” Signed editions are being auctioned to benefit the ACLU, St. Jude, Save the Children and the ASPCA.