First, the naivety. Mitchell’s controversial use of blackface started in 1976. That was the year when she first dressed up as a male black pimp alter-ego called Art Nouveau. You read that correctly.

The video’s text overlay reads, “Me when I’m singing this and my brother has to tell me Joni Mitchell had a Black alter ego named Art Nouveau and she got so much backlash that she had to ...

"To ask whether Joni Mitchell ever wanted to be a mother is ... don blackface in a pimp-inspired persona she created named Art Nouveau, a character she posed as on the cover of her 1977 album ...