Judy Collins

Judy Collins (born Judith Marjorie Collins on May 1, 1939) is an American singer‑songwriter and musician whose career spans more than six decades and includes a remarkable breadth of musical styles, from traditional folk and protest songs to pop standards, Broadway ballads, and original compositions. Raised in Seattle and later Denver, she began as a classical piano prodigy, debuting publicly at age 13 with Mozart, but after discovering folk music in her teens she shifted to guitar and vocals, quickly becoming a fixture in the vibrant Greenwich Village scene of the early 1960s. Her 1961 debut album A Maid of Constant Sorrow introduced her clear, crystalline voice to a national audience, and she soon earned a reputation for championing emerging songwriters such as Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, and Joni Mitchell, often recording their work before they achieved mainstream fame. The 1967 single “Both Sides, Now,” a Joni Mitchell composition, propelled her to international prominence, reaching the Billboard Top 10 and winning her first Grammy for Best Folk Performance. The following decade cemented her status as a crossover star when her rendition of Stephen Sondheim’s “Send in the Clowns” from the 1975 album Judith became a worldwide hit, earned a Grammy nomination, and helped the album achieve platinum certification. Beyond music, Collins has been an outspoken activist for civil rights, women's reproductive freedom, and environmental causes, even testifying before a grand jury in 1969 while singing “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?”; she has also authored several memoirs and novels, directed an Academy‑Award‑nominated documentary, and founded Wildflower Records in 1999 to support independent artists. Even into her eighties, she continues to record new material, collaborate with contemporary musicians, and receive honors such as multiple Grammy nominations, a National Recording Registry selection, and lifetime‑achievement awards, underscoring her lasting influence on American folk and popular music.