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It tells you everything you need to know about this year’s Grammy Awards show on Feb. 4 that at one point during the broadcast, the websites of both 34-year-old Taylor Swift and 80-year-old Joni Mitchell were down from too much internet traffic. The 66th Grammy Awards were that kind of intergenerational lovefest (and saw nearly every major award go to a woman as well). Swift won album of the year for Midnights, becoming the first artist in history to win that category four times.
Joni Mitchell, left, and Brandi Carlile perform "Both Sides Now" during the 66th Grammy Awards.
Chris Pizzello/AP Photo
Joni Mitchell brings the audience to tears
But the true star of the night was Joni Mitchell, who won the best folk album award for Joni Mitchell at Newport (Live). That was Mitchell’s 10th Grammy overall, for a 2023 record that represented her return to performing after 20 years away. She was ebullient accepting the award in a nontelevised ceremony before the Grammy show. “It’s a very joyous record because of the people I played with,” she said. “The spirit of the occasion was very high, and it went onto the record. Even the audience sounds like music.”
Mitchell’s performance during the broadcast singing her 1969 hit “Both Sides Now,” made some viewers cry, though she finished it with a smile. Brandi Carlile introduced Mitchell, saying, “She redefined the very purpose of a song to reflect the contents of a person’s soul. Before she took this leap, the popular song was observational. The exhilarating risks that we all now take by turning ourselves inside out for all the world to see started, as far as I can tell, with Joni Mitchell doing it first. She’s like the first person to strip down at the skinny-dipping party and take that awkward, terrifying leap before everybody else eventually joyfully follows.”
Carlile also noted the brain aneurysm that almost ended Mitchell’s life nine years ago, and said that, since she’d had polio as a child, “Joni has had to learn to walk three times.” Mitchell sang a beautiful, jazz-inspired rendition of her famous ballad, using her cane as a percussion device. It was a demonstration of an artist aging with grace while retaining her edge. It brought everyone from Swift to Beyoncé, from Jay Z to Meryl Streep, from Oprah to 20-year-old Olivia Rodrigo, to their feet for a rousing standing ovation.
Tracy Chapman, left, and Luke Combs perform "Fast Car."
Chris Pizzello/AP Photo
Tracy Chapman roared back into the spotlight
The only moment close to as affecting as Mitchell’s was when country sensation Luke Combs, 33, brought out Tracy Chapman to sing her 1988 song “Fast Car.” Combs had a huge 2023 hit with the tune, but Sunday saw the gray-haired Chapman, 59, performing it with Combs as a duet. Chapman had only played in public three times since concluding her last tour in 2009, and the duet was exactly the kind of special moment that Grammy viewers dream of. Combs said the song was “already iconic before you even get to the chorus,” and that was true of this performance.
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