EXCLUSIVE: Joni Mitchell Facing Calls For Her to Be Cancelled Over 'Racism' — After Ultra-Woke Gen Z'ers Raked Up Old Snap of Music Icon Wearing Blackface... 50 YEARS Ago
Joni Mitchell isn't a hit among Gen-Z.
March 20 2025, Published 12:03 p.m. ET
Woke eco-warrior Joni Mitchell is facing a social media backlash over her use of blackface in the 1970s.
The Canadian-American artist, one of the world’s most celebrated songwriters, has come under renewed scrutiny and calls to be canceled for her former black "alter-ego", named Art Nouveau, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
Mitchell, 81 – best known for her association with California’s beatnik counterculture – used to dress up in blackface, complete with an Afro, a pimp suit and a wide mustache, in the mid-1970s and early 1980s.
Her now controversial alter-ego featured prominently on the cover of her 1977 album Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter.
Following a viral rendition of her song California by Amanda Seyfried, the Mamma Mia actress, on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, the artist’s controversial history is under the spotlight thanks to a younger generation of woke warrior music fans.
One social media user wrote on X: "Can I be the brave annoying Gen Z person and say yeah, I don’t care for her because she did black face."
A fellow social media user chipped in: "Just found out Joni Mitchell did blackface in the '80s during the era of my favorite album no one talk to me."
Another critic claimed she had a "problematic history," while others said she was now "being canceled on TikTok."
Amanda Seyfried is a massive Mitchell fan – unlike droves of easily offended Gen Z'ers.
It came after actress Amanda Seyfried, 39, appeared on the US television program on March 5, during which she performed a rendition of California to pay tribute to the US state that "deserves a lot of love right now" after the devastating L.A. wildfires struck earlier this year.
A clip of the performance gained massive traction, notching up 38.3 million views and 5.1 million likes on the FallonTonight TikTok account –leading to a new generation discovering Mitchell’s back catalog.
The artist previously said she created her blackface persona after being inspired by a black man she saw walking down Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles in 1976 and decided to dress up as him for a Halloween fancy dress party.
"I saw this black guy with a beautiful spirit walking with a bop," Mitchell told writer Angela LaGreca.
She added: "As he went by me he turned around and said: 'Ummm mmm, looking good sister, lookin’ good.' Well, I just felt so good after he said that. It was as if this spirit went into me.
"So I started walking like him. I bought a black wig, I bought sideburns, a mustache. I bought some pancake make-up. I was like, 'I’m goin’ as him'."
Mitchell in her now-blasted blackface costume.
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Mitchell, who lost her ability to speak after a brain aneurysm 10 years ago, recently stole the show at a benefit concert for L.A. wildfire victims.
The icon reduced fans to tears when she sang her 1966 hit Both Sides Now while sitting in a gilded chair as she tapped a black cane on the floor – leaving one wowed concertgoer to tell us: "It does feel like a miracle she's up there again after all she's been through."
