Walk of Fame

Inducted: 2025

Janis Ian has always believed in the power of art. “I believe it can heal the broken in spirit, give strength to the fragile, ease the weary soul. I want my work to be a voice for the voiceless,” she once said. Over her six decades-long career the ten-time GRAMMY nominee (and two-time winner) whose songs and performances have resonated with a diverse group of fans has accomplished that mission in spades.

“Janis Ian is a one-of-a-kind songwriter,” wrote NPR. “Just like her music, she’s honest, incisive, and fearless. She’s also very funny and exudes the sort of confidence that comes from a lifetime of breaking down barriers and speaking her mind – even when the powers that be tried to keep her quiet.”

Her journey began living on a farm in New Jersey raised by Jewish liberal parents and gravitating toward folk music with Odetta and Joan Baez as her earliest role models. She wrote her first song at the young age of 12, was published at 13, made a record at 14, had a hit at 15, and, as she’s said, “was a has-been at 16.” Ian, who currently lives in Florida with her wife of 34 years, got her first GRAMMY nomination in 1967 for “Society’s Child.” She took home her first GRAMMY Award in 1975 for Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female for “At Seventeen,” and her second for Best Spoken Word Album for Society’s Child: My Autobiography in 2013. Two of her most powerful songs, “Society’s Child” and “At Seventeen,” were inducted into the GRAMMY Hall of Fame in 2002 and 2008, respectively. She is one of just a few artists who have received nominations in eight different categories over the past six decades. Her 2023 GRAMMY nomination for her last studio album, 2022’s The Light at the End of the Line, for Best Folk Album brought her full circle as her very first nomination was in the same category.

Much of her music has poignantly focused on social issues as a pioneer of both the confessional singer-songwriter genre and social protest music. For this, she was often heralded as “the female Bob Dylan.” The child prodigy’s first hit, “Society’s Child,” written at age 13 and released on her debut self-titled album in 1967 at age 15, speaks empathetically about interracial romance forbidden by family and shunned by society. The song was even banned from some radio stations and Ian received death threats because of its controversial nature. It became a hit after iconic composer/conductor Leonard Bernstein championed the young artist and the provocative song on his 1967 CBS special, Inside Pop: The Rock Revolution. The song peaked at No. 14 on Billboard’s Hot 100.

Likewise, her indelible song, “At Seventeen,” from her 1975 album Between the Lines, which hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200 album chart and reached double platinum in sales, remains the anthem for so-called “Ugly Duckling Girls” trapped by false beauty standards – a topic as relevant today as it was nearly 50 years ago. The song, which earned Ian her first GRAMMY win, hit No. 1 on Billboard’s Adult Contemporary, Cash Box’s Top 100, and Canada’s RPM
Adult Contemporary charts and No. 3 on Billboard’s Hot 100. Ian also holds the unique distinction of being the first musical guest on Saturday Night Live in 1975 where she performed the hit. With its powerful message, “At Seventeen” has been featured in everything from anti-bullying commercials to television shows and films to being covered and/or performed by dozens of artists ranging from Celine Dion to Dave Grohl (Nirvana, Foo Fighters) and his daughter, Violet.

“It’s a piece of luck when you can hit on a universal theme like ‘At Seventeen,;” she says. “It’s what you strive for as a writer. I’m astonished that the song has lived this long, but I’m also horrified that it, and ‘Society’s Child,’ are both still so relevant. I would have hoped that by now so many things would be better.”

Along the way, Ian’s music has defied easy categorization, with albums like Stars and Between the Lines becoming classics in both the adult contemporary and folk rock idioms. The artist, who is also a multi-instrumentalist and band leader, has never shied away from tough topics, often tackling traumatic subject matter such as spousal abuse, incest, and the Holocaust.

Ian was also a pioneer of artist-run labels with her Rude Girl Records, which launched in 1992 as the first independent label to join iTunes. Janis also holds the distinction of hosting the first international Internet auction, in 1998, long before eBay or other auction sites came on the scene. After coming out with her groundbreaking 1993 album Breaking Silence, she’s been a beacon for LGBTQIA+ awareness in the folk community and beyond.

Her songs have been covered by artists as diverse as John Mellencamp, Amy Grant, Diane Schuur, Nina Simone, Celine Dion, and Joan Baez. Janis has dueted with Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton, and Mel Torme. Notable artists have sung Ian’s praises, from Nina Simone saying her song “Stars” was the only way she could express her feelings at the moment, to playwright Tennessee Williams wearing out three copies of Between the Lines, to Johnny Cash keeping a copy of her poetry book in his personal library, to Roberta Flack covering her song “Jesse” because “Janis Ian wrote songs that touch my heart.” Flack told the New York Times, “She tells stories in her songs that many of us can relate to – tender experiences that help us articulate what we feel about how the world treats us in so many ways.” Other outspoken fans over the years include Prince, Jamie Lee Curtis, Shirley MacLaine, Julian Bond, Chet Baker, Chick Corea, and many more.

Among some of the other major accolades that the pioneering artist has been awarded over the years includes the Folk Alliance Lifetime Achievement Award for Living Legend (2023), Berklee College of Music honored her as “An Artist for All Times” with their first Liberal Arts Award (2010), and others (see list on her website: archivalwebsite.janisian.com/presskit.php#1_7).

Along with her contributions to the music community, Ian has also been involved with civil rights, human rights, LGBTQA+, and higher education. She was honored for her civil rights work by the New York State Senate (2007), and for her efforts on behalf of gay rights and AIDS work by the Human Rights Campaign Fund, Nashville (1998), among dozens of other awards and honors. Additionally, for 22 years, Janis and her wife independently ran the Pearl Foundation, which, to date, has awarded more than $1,275,000 in continuing scholarships. The funds have been awarded to more than 150 “returning students” attending Berea College (Berea, KY), Warren Wilson College (Swannanoa, NC), Goddard College (Plainfield, VT), and the University of Tennessee (Knoxville, TN).

Along with the aforementioned GRAMMY nomination, The Light at the End of the Line also awarded her the Artist of the Year nod at the International Folk Music Awards 2023 and has been met with overwhelming critical, fan, and industry praise. It’s received rave reviews around the globe from The New York Times and NPR to The Guardian and Pop Matters. Among the best-of lists the record has landed on are the U.K.’s Arts Desk, Australia’s Rhythms Magazine, and America’s A.A.R.P. The Magazine, which writer Jim Farber opined, “Ian’s swan song offers a worthy and moving, goodbye.”

“I love this album,” says Ian of The Light… “There is an element of, ‘This is the absolute best I can do over the span of 58 years as a writer. This is what I’ve learned. And I realized that this album has an arc, and I’ve never really done anything like that before.”

Though Janis had to stop performing live and recording new music in 2022 due to vocal cord scarring brought on by a virus, she is not slowing down with her creative endeavors any time soon. The icon has been mining her treasure trove of music and memorabilia for her massive archival project at Berea College in Berea, Kentucky which opened in October 2024, as well as releasing rare and previously unreleased recordings. The first two releases are Live at the Calderone Theater 1975 and Worktapes & Demos Vol. 1 with more to come. Additionally, a feature-length music documentary, Janis Ian: Breaking Silence, is set to release in theaters March 2025 with a broadcast premiere later in the year on PBS American Masters.

Along with Ian herself, the film will feature interviews with a wide arrange of creatives from the music world (Joan Baez, Arlo Guthrie, Kathy Mattea, Janey Street, Kye Fleming, Tom Paxton, Jon Vezner), to actors (Lili Tomlin, Jean Smart, Laurie Metcalf), to journalists (Ann Powers, Anthony DeCurtis, Stephen Holden). Award-winning director/producer Varda Bar-Kar, best known for Big Voice (Netflix, PBS) and Fandango at the Wall (HBO, HBOMax), is
directing and producing the project.

“It takes a certain amount of maturity to realize that you don’t have to keep proving you can write,” says Ian of this phase of her illustrious career. “I’ve already created a body of work I’m proud of, and I’m old enough to realize that it’s the light at the end of the line that matters. The journey has always been more interesting to me than wherever I end up and my journey continues.”