Joni Mitchell may be famous for singing about California, but her roots are Canadian. In 1965, Mitchell met and fell in love with an American man, bringing her to the US, where she embarked on a legendary musical career (thank you, tall, dark stranger).
Widely regarded as the most important and influential female recording artist of the late 20th century, Mitchell became the voice of a generation, giving rise to feminism at a time when female artists had to fight for legitimacy in the shadow of male contemporaries like Neil Young.
Every bit the lyricist that Bob Dylan is, her classic song "Big Yellow Taxi" has become the battle cry of environmentalists everywhere, while more contemporary songs like "If I Had a Heart" speak out against American foreign policy.
