Joyce OrlandoNashville Tennessean
On Sunday, Joni Mitchell made her live Grammy performance debut. Now people are looking for her music, but are having some issues finding it on Spotify.
The 80-year-old musician made one of her rare appearances on stage performing at the Grammys alongside Brandi Carlile, Allison Russell and Sista Strings. The performance led to a search for her music at the ever-popular music streaming service Spotify. But users came up empty-handed.
Why are they having issues? Because it's not there.
Mitchell, along with seven other musicians, pulled most of their music from Spotify during 2022 due to the spread of misinformation regarding COVID-19 and its vaccine.
Why isn't Joni Mitchell on Spotify?
Why? Because of Joe Rogan.
In 2022, singer-songwriter Neil Young criticized Spotify for having "The Joe Rogan Experience" podcast and host Joe Rogan's spread of misinformation about COVID-19 and the vaccine. Young wrote and open letter to the music service at the time stating, "Spotify is spreading fake information about vaccines – potentially causing death to those who believe the disinformation being spread by them."
In January 2022, Mitchell followed in the footsteps of Young and asked Spotify to remove her discography from the music streaming service.
But not everything of Mitchell's is gone from the service. As of February, much of Mitchell's albums remain off of Spotify except for one live album.
Which artist had their music removed from Spotify?
Only a handful of musicians asked for the music to be removed from Spotify in 2022 along with Young and Mitchell. The artists include:
- Neil Young
- Joni Mitchell
- Nils Lofgren
- David Crosby
- India Arie Simpson: Left Spotify because of Rogan’s “language aroundrace,” she wrote in a note on Instagram at the time.
- Failure
- Graham Nash
- Stephen Stills
As of 2024, much of the work of India Arie, David Crosby, Failure, Graham Nash and Stephen Stills is still available on Spotify. Neil Young's and Nils Lofgren's Spotify pages have only a select few songs available.
How long has Joni Mitchell been performing?
Mitchell started her career in the 1960s folk music scene and for decades has inspired many a young singer to make their kind of music.
"Whether we know it or not, any one of us out here who ever dreamed of becoming a truly self-revealing signer songwriter is standing on the shoulders of the one and only Joni Mitchell," Carlile said while introducing Mitchell at the 2024 Grammys.
Over the years, Mitchell has flirted with different genres of music and has been honored for her contributions to music, including on Sunday with the Grammy for Best Folk Album for "Joni Mitchell at Newport (Live)."
Where is Joni Mitchell from?
Mitchell was born Roberta Joan Anderson on Nov. 7, 1943, in Fort Macleod, Alberta, Canada.She may have been born in Alberta, but Mitchell calls Saskatoon, Saskatchewan her hometown, according to her biography by Wally Breese.
