Joni Mitchell Moves Bandmates To Tears With Surprise First Live Set In 20 Years Following Her Brain Aneurysm

Joni Mitchell gave her first festival performance in 20 years after she suffered a brain aneurysm that forced her to relearn how to play guitar.

On 24 July, Joni appeared at the Newport Folk Festival in Newport, Rhode Island, and it's possibly one of the most wholesome things we've ever seen.

The emotional set saw Joni welcomed back on to the stage, performing a repertoire of her hit songs accompanied by artists l like Brandi Carlile, Marcus Mumford, and her bandmates Phil and Tim Hanseroth.

Sitting on a gold-cloaked armchair, Joni settled into a 13-song set with the kind of ease she describes in Case of You.

The moment meant a lot to Joni and her fans after the singer suffered a debilitating brain aneurysm in 2015.

And the setlist was full of fan favourites, including 'Carey', 'Come in from the Cold', 'Help Me', 'Case of You', 'Just Like This Train', 'Shine', 'Summertime', 'Both Sides Now', and 'The Circle Game'.

As the weekend went on, it quickly became apparent that the talented musician was the 'least nervous person' on stage, skilfully slipping into her songs with the same kind of passion she had 20 years ago.

Still, for die-hard Joni fans, her incredible performance will come as no surprise as she said in an interview with The Guardian back in 2020: "The words to the song are your script. You have to bring the correct emotion to every word. You know, if you sing it pretty – a lot of people that cover my songs will sing it pretty – it’s going to fall flat. You have to bring more to it than that."

Joni's comments and her beautiful festival performance underscore how much care she puts into her music - so much so, that she made headlines earlier this year for pulling her music off of Spotify in solidarity with Neil Young.

Back in January, Joni announced that she would be standing against coronavirus vaccine misinformation.

This was in response to Joe Rogan, who had come under fire for spreading such misinformation via his podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience.

In retaliation Neil and Joni removed their music, with Joni taking to her website in a statement titled, 'I Stand With Neil Young', adding that she was against 'irresponsible people [...] spreading lies that are costing people their lives.'

'I stand in solidarity with Neil Young and the global scientific and medical communities on this issue,' she concluded.

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