ARTIST OF THE YEAR

This is a complete surprise,” said singer/songwriter Janis Ian moments after winning Artist of the Year at the International Folk Music Awards 2023 on Wednesday (February 1), was held at the Westin Crown Center Hotel in Kansas City, Missouri. Read on for more about Janis Ian Wins Artist of the Year At the International Folk Music Awards 2023.

“I was already up for lifetime achievement, and I thought, ‘How many awards can you fit in your suitcase?’” she quipped. In all seriousness, the iconic artist was deeply honored, and humbled, by this award, adding, “I want to thank the folk community for honoring people like myself, and for not forgetting that we all have roots, and we stand on them.”

Roots run deep

Ian’s roots run deep as she helped bolster folk music since the early days of her music career and some of her earliest works still make statements to today’s influencers. On the eve of the IFMA, basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who is also a social activist and has been writing for a variety of outlets including The Los Angeles Times, wrote about Ian’s groundbreaking song “At Seventeen” on his February 1 Substack titled Music: When Art Is a Mirror, Janis Ian: Society’s Biographer Reveals Our Deepest Truths.

AT SEVENTEEN

“I chose ‘At Seventeen,’ because it is one of the most honest and moving songs about coming-of-age ever written. It is Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar and J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye of music. Please listen to the whole song because it is a joy to hear the poetry of her insights. The words ring just as true today as they did 48 years ago,” wrote Abdul-Jabbar.

Best Folk Album

Janis Ian Wins Artist of the Year At the International Folk Music Awards 2023

Ian, who is up for another Best Folk Album at the 65th GRAMMY Awards this Sunday (February 5) for her last studio album, The Light at the End of the Line, also accepted the IFMA’s Elaine Weissman Lifetime Achievement Award for Living Legend, where she gave an impassioned speech about what it takes to be an artist.

“I find I’ve reached the age where people use words like ‘legendary’ and ‘heroic’ to describe me,” said Ian in her acceptance speech. “When I was young, to be a legend you had to be dead. A hero was stunningly courageous. In truth, most of the time, my own acts of courage have been accidental. I had no other choice.”

Medical Issues

Most recently, her courage came after finding out that an odd virus had left scarring on her right vocal cord, forcing her to end her touring and singing career as she knows it. “When I suddenly lost my ability to sing last year, it was a shock. I hoped for courage but found I had very little,” she continued. “The loss of a singer’s voice is a death in the family, and like any death, I feel it every day. I’m surprised that the sun still comes up. I’m astonished that other people can sing, fabulously, wonderfully, without me. To lose something this big is to join a very exclusive club, only understandable by other members of that club.”

But as the 71-year-old has been saying she is nowhere close to retiring. Rather, she is rewiring her career. The artist is readying a bevy of creative projects. Ian is digging into hundreds of live shows, worktapes, and videos in her vaults. She is planning upcoming releases sharing her life’s work in the newly-established Janis Ian Archives at Berea (Kentucky) College.

Folk Generosity

Her generosity as an artist, and to the folk community, continued in her speech with these words of wisdom for her colleagues: “As the saying goes, I now have more years behind me than I have before me, and in the midst of my own loss, I want to say two things to my colleagues, who by now should have realized the thrust of this is really about you, and how quickly things can change. First, trust your talent. It knows better than you do. When that little bell rings, listen to it, be it in business or in the creative act. Trust your talent.”

Be Brave

“Second, be brave. Be brave,” she added. “And when you’re afraid – because we’re all afraid – pretend to be brave. Imitate bravery, in your work and in your life. Act like a hero, and you will become a hero. In our world, appearance is everything, be it the format of a song, or the living of a life. And honestly, there is more sleight-of-hand to this legendary hero business than one would imagine.”

Lifetime Achievement Award

In choosing Ian for the Lifetime Achievement Award, the Folk Alliance said, “Janis Ian is a music icon whose songs and performances have resonated with the public for over five decades. Much of her music has poignantly focused on social issues. Ian is a pioneer of both confessional singer-songwriters’ music and social protest.”

Society’s Child

Janis Ian Wins Artist of the Year At the International Folk Music Awards 2023

“Her first hit, ‘Society’s Child,’ written when she was just fourteen,” they continue, “spoke empathetically about interracial romance, and her indelible song ‘At Seventeen’ remains the anthem for ‘ugly duckling girls’ maligned by false beauty standards. Her music defies easy categorization, with albums like ‘Stars’ and ‘Between the Lines’ becoming classics in both the adult contemporary and folk rock idioms. Ian was also a pioneer of artist-run labels with her Rude Girl Records and, after coming out with her groundbreaking 1993 album Breaking Silence, she’s been a beacon for LGBTQIA+ awareness in the folk community. Ian (was just forced to retire) from performing, making this the perfect time to honor this living legend.”

Fans can watch the International Folk Music Awards 2023 on YouTube here: www.youtube.com/live/2t9LVfyEu-I?feature=share

Ian will find out this Sunday (February 5) if she takes home her third GRAMMY Award. She is up for Best Folk Album for The Light at the End of the Line at 2023.  The GRAMMY Awards will be broadcast live on CBS. You can stream live and on-demand on Paramount+ at 8-11:30 p.m. ET/5-8:30 p.m. PT.