Joan Chandos Baez (born January 9, 1941) is a singer, songwriter, musician, and activist from the United States. Her protest and social justice songs are frequently featured in her contemporary folk music. Baez has been performing publicly for nearly 60 years and has released over 30 CDs. She speaks Spanish and English and has recorded songs in at least six more languages.
Baez is widely considered as a folk singer, but her music has evolved since the 1960s counterculture era and now includes folk rock, pop, country, and gospel music. She began her recording career in 1960 and was an instant success. Joan Baez’s first three albums, Joan Baez, Vol. 2, and Joan Baez in Concert were all certified gold. Although she is a songwriter, Baez prefers to interpret the work of others, having recorded songs by the Allman Brothers Band, the Beatles, Jackson Browne, Leonard Cohen, Woody Guthrie, Violeta Parra, the Rolling Stones, Pete Seeger, Paul Simon, Stevie Wonder, Bob Marley, and many more.
In the early 1960s, she was one of the first prominent singers to record Bob Dylan’s songs; Baez was already an internationally acclaimed artist who helped publicize Dylan’s early songwriting efforts. Her turbulent relationship with Dylan later became the topic of both of their songs and sparked much public conjecture. She has found success interpreting the work of more current songwriters such as Ryan Adams, Josh Ritter, Steve Earle, Natalie Merchant, and Joe Henry on her later albums.