Joni Mitchell Honored at Star-studded Concert Gala

FILE - Joni Mitchell arrives at the 64th Annual Grammy Awards at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on Sunday, April 3, 2022, in Las Vegas. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File)
FILE - Joni Mitchell arrives at the 64th Annual Grammy Awards at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on Sunday, April 3, 2022, in Las Vegas. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File)
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Joni Mitchell Honored at Star-studded Concert Gala

FILE - Joni Mitchell arrives at the 64th Annual Grammy Awards at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on Sunday, April 3, 2022, in Las Vegas. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File)
FILE - Joni Mitchell arrives at the 64th Annual Grammy Awards at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on Sunday, April 3, 2022, in Las Vegas. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File)

Artists spanning the genres came together Wednesday to celebrate the peerless Joni Mitchell, honoring her vast contributions to popular song.

The pioneering singer-songwriter behind poignant hits including "A Case Of You," joins an elite coterie of composers including Stevie Wonder, Paul McCartney, Tony Bennett and Carole King in receiving the US Library of Congress' Gershwin Prize, which is named for the brothers behind American standards such as "I Got Rhythm" and "Rhapsody In Blue."

Not one but two of her muses -- James Taylor and Graham Nash -- performed; both were among the lovers and collaborators she counted throughout her storied career, AFP said.

Wearing a newsboy cap, Taylor perched on a stool with an acoustic guitar to perform the song "California" off her seminal 1971 album "Blue," to Mitchell's delight.

The 79-year-old kept the beat with her cane, donning oversized sunglasses along with a metallic gold beret and a long, bedazzled teal dress.

"Her music, it gets into you, and it sort of becomes part of the mix," Taylor told AFP on the red carpet prior to the event in Washington.

"Blue" saw Mitchell mine her own heartache, including breakups with Taylor and Nash, to produce the record that's a regular on critics' all-time-best lists.

Nash later took the stage for a rendition of "A Case Of You" -- another song on "Blue," which many people believe she wrote about him.

"It's a very simple song," he told journalists prior to the event. "I think it's very profound in what it says."

"I loved it from the day that I first heard it and I'll sing my ass off tonight."

He certainly did but of course it was Mitchell herself who stole the show: after accepting her award she stunned the audience with a soulful, smoky performance of "Summertime," an aria George Gershwin composed for the opera "Porgy and Bess."

"This is overwhelming," she said onstage, the crowd giving her a standing ovation. "There's so many people that I care about in here tonight, from different parts of my life."

"New friends, old friends... it's thrilling!"

- Comeback -

The trailblazing Mitchell has experienced something of a renaissance over the past year, making a return to public life after she suffered a brain aneurysm in 2015 that left her temporarily unable to speak.

She has since undergone extensive physical therapy that's allowed her to return to performance, which at one point seemed a long shot.

Last summer she delivered her first full set in more than 20 years, surprising attendees at the Newport Folk Festival alongside folk-rocker Brandi Carlile, who was also a performer integral to Wednesday's setlist.

"Her resilience is palpable," said Carlile before the gala. "There are huge elements of her voice and vibrato that are back."

Mitchell is slated to headline a "Joni Jam" show this June at Washington state's Gorge Amphitheatre, again alongside Carlile.

- 'Opened doors' -

Wednesday's gala was a testament to the foundations Mitchell laid for women creating art in a world controlled by men.

"Joni was the first woman that I really related to as a singer-songwriter -- as a creative woman," said Annie Lennox on the red carpet. "There wasn't anything like her."

"She was this ethereal beauty that had this deep, profound insight into the world."

Lennox gave the room chills with a performance of the ballad "Both Sides Now," starting at the piano before standing to belt out the final stanzas.

She later collaborated with a bevy of women including Angelique Kidjo, Cyndi Lauper and Carlile to perform Mitchell's environmentally conscious classic "Big Yellow Taxi."

"This business is so men-dominated," Kidjo told AFP. "And we have to find our space in there, and she has opened doors for many, many women in this country and in the world."

- 'Freeing' -

Born in a small town in western Canada, Mitchell had her start playing small clubs and eventually moved to Los Angeles, where she became a pivotal figure in the 1960s Laurel Canyon music scene and beyond.

She punctuated her deceptively simple songs with a distinctive, wide-ranging voice and open-tuned guitar, which lent an idiosyncratic sound to the standard rock and folk of the era.

Mitchell also received praise for her integration of jazz, collaborating with greats including Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock, the latter of whom performed "River" on Wednesday.

"She's like, up on a pedestal somewhere up there with Zeus," Hancock told AFP.

"She bares her soul," the superstar pianist -- who dedicated an entire album to Mitchell's covers and won one of the top Grammy's off it -- continued. "Sometimes you try to hide things from others, and she addresses those kinds of issues."

"I think it's freeing for everybody that listens."



Papal Thriller ‘Conclave’ Leads BAFTA Nominations, Music and Horror Fare Well

Ralph Fiennes attends the 36th Annual Palm Springs International Film Festival, in Palm Springs, California, US, January 3, 2025. (Reuters)
Ralph Fiennes attends the 36th Annual Palm Springs International Film Festival, in Palm Springs, California, US, January 3, 2025. (Reuters)
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Papal Thriller ‘Conclave’ Leads BAFTA Nominations, Music and Horror Fare Well

Ralph Fiennes attends the 36th Annual Palm Springs International Film Festival, in Palm Springs, California, US, January 3, 2025. (Reuters)
Ralph Fiennes attends the 36th Annual Palm Springs International Film Festival, in Palm Springs, California, US, January 3, 2025. (Reuters)

Papal thriller "Conclave" led nominations for the BAFTA Film Awards on Wednesday, with music-themed and horror productions also faring well at Britain's top movie honors.

"Conclave," about scheming cardinals deciding who to elect as pope, secured 12 nods including for best film, director for Edward Berger and leading actor for Ralph Fiennes.

Isabella Rossellini was nominated for best supporting actress for playing a nun in the movie, based on the novel by British writer Robert Harris.

Berger's last film, a German remake of the anti-war classic "All Quiet on the Western Front," swept the 2023 BAFTA awards with a historic seven wins.

"Emilia Perez," which mixes the diverse genres of musical and crime, followed "Conclave" with 11 nominations. The Spanish-language film stars Zoe Saldana as a lawyer who helps a Mexican cartel leader, played by Karla Sofia Gascon, fake his death.

Gascon got a leading actress nomination, while Saldana and singer-actor Selena Gomez, who plays the drug lord's wife, were recognized for supporting actress.

One of the top contenders during this year's awards season, "Emilia Perez" also received nods for best film and director for French filmmaker Jacques Audiard.

Fellow musical "Wicked," the hit adaptation of the stage show, and the Bob Dylan biopic "A Complete Unknown," in which Timothee Chalamet portrays the singer during his rise to fame in the 1960s, were also recognized, with seven and six nominations respectively. Adding to the music theme, "Kneecap," about the rise of an Irish hip-hop trio, also got six nods.

"A Complete Unknown" will also compete at the Feb. 16 ceremony for the top prize of best film, along with "The Brutalist," in which Adrien Brody portrays a Hungarian immigrant seeking to rebuild his life in the United States after World War Two. That movie received nine nominations, including three acting nods.

"Anora," about a young exotic dancer who becomes involved with the son of a Russian oligarch, completes the list for best film. The omission of "Wicked," whose stars Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande received nominations, surprised fans.

"The pleasant surprise is the range of the types of movies," Anna Higgs, chair of the BAFTA Film Committee, told Reuters.

"We don't just have classic awards dramas ... but we also have sci-fi and horror in the mix as well as a whole heap of musicals and musical-themed movies this year," Higgs said.

HORROR FILMS

Both Chalamet and Brody, who won a Golden Globe this month, were nominated for leading actor, alongside Fiennes, Colman Domingo for the prison drama "Sing Sing" and surprise inclusions Hugh Grant for playing a serial killer in the horror film "Heretic" and Sebastian Stan for his portrayal of a young Donald Trump in "The Apprentice."

Gascon's leading actress rivals include Golden Globe winner Demi Moore for the body horror film "The Substance," which received five nominations, including for Coralie Fargeat, the only woman to make the best director category. That list did not include any British filmmakers.

Gothic horror film "Nosferatu" also received five nominations, in another boost for the genre.

The leading actress category includes Erivo, Mikey Madison for "Anora," Saoirse Ronan for playing a woman dealing with addiction in "The Outrun," and Marianne Jean-Baptiste as a woman struggling with depression in "Hard Truths."

More than half of the acting contenders - 14 out of 24 - are first-time BAFTA Film Awards nominees.

Observers will be looking at the BAFTAs for indications of Oscar triumphs. Last year's main category winners were the same at both ceremonies.