Joni Mitchell

Full Name: Roberta Joan Anderson
Profession: Singer-Songwriter

Nationality:

Biography: Joni helped define an era and a generation with popular songs like "Big Yellow Taxi", "Woodstock", "Both Sides Now", and "A Case Of You".

Her wide-ranging contralto vocals and distinctive open-tuned guitar and piano compositions grew more harmonically and rhythmically complex as she explored jazz, melding it with influences of folk, rock and roll, R&B, classical music, and non-western beats.

She has garnered many awards, including 9 Grammys and 3 Junos. Her catalog includes 6 gold and 3 platinum albums. 1971's album "Blue" consistently appears on critics' all-time best lists, and 1974's "Court And Spark" has sold over 2 million copies. Her catalog includes 19 studio and 5 live albums

Prior to her 1st marriage, Mitchell gave birth to a daughter who was put up for adoption. This was not public knowledge, although clues can be found in some of her song lyrics, until a tabloid revelation in 1993. She met her daughter for the first time in 1997. She has since spoken of the absent child as the muse for much of songwriting.

By the turn of the century, she had became disenchanted with the music industry, and released two albums of orchestrally backed jazz versions of standards and reworks of her own material to fulfill her recording contract and completed a brief retirement tour. She turned her focus to a more private world of painting.

She released one new album of original songs in 2007.

In March 2015, Mitchell suffered a brain aneurysm which largely incapacitated her. She needed extensive therapy for both physical and speech issues.

Born: November 7, 1943
Birthplace: Fort Macleod, Alberta, Canada
Age: 80 years old

Generation: Silent Generation
Chinese Zodiac: Goat/Sheep
Star Sign: Scorpio