Joni Mitchell confirms U.S. citizenship after 62-year journey
Joni Mitchell is now a citizen of the United States.
The Canadian-born songwriter confirmed she has formalised dual citizenship, meaning she is legally recognised as a citizen of both Canada and the United States, in an Instagram post shared on Tuesday, 13 October. The announcement was brief. The caption read: "A journey that began 62 years ago" Pitchfork.
The post included video of Mitchell taking the oath as a crowd watched and applauded. She offered no further statement. The footage speaks for itself.
An oath ceremony is the final legal step to become a naturalised citizen, the term for a person who gains citizenship after birth rather than receiving it at birth. Dual citizens keep the rights of both countries, including the right to hold two passports and to live and work in either country.
Mitchell was born in Alberta and raised in Saskatoon from the age of nine. Her connection to the United States goes back more than six decades. It began long before she settled on the west coast.
She first arrived in the mid-1960s and settled in Detroit after her marriage to Chuck Mitchell. She then spent a brief period in New York before moving to Los Angeles in 1968. She now lives in Santa Barbara, California.
That timeline fits the caption. Sixty-two years back from October 2026 lands in the early 1960s, just before that move to Detroit. The dates trace a life lived across the border.
The news gives new weight to remarks she made on stage. During a 2024 "Joni Jam" performance at the Hollywood Bowl, Mitchell told the audience she wished she could vote. She described herself as Canadian and "one of those lousy immigrants."
Her path back to the stage has been closely watched. Mitchell suffered a brain aneurysm in 2015, as reported by Reuters. In recent years she has returned to live performance to large audiences. She was also among the music stars who attended the Clive Davis party in Beverly Hills, California, on 31 January 2026.
For fans who heard that Hollywood Bowl comment, this changes that story. American citizenship brings the right to vote in federal elections. Sixty-two years after that first move south, Mitchell can now take part.
