Amanda Seyfried Sounds Exactly Like Joni Mitchell Singing "California"
The Long Bright River star's unbelievable cover of the Blue classic dazzled the Tonight Show audience.
Anyone who's seen Les Misérables or Mamma Mia! knows Amanda Seyfried can sing.
When the Long Bright River star stopped by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on March 4, she treating the audience to her beautiful voice, and showed off her impressive dulcimer skills playing a live cover of Joni Mitchell's "California." If you closed your eyes during Seyfried's performance, you'd swear you were listening to the Canadian folk icon herself.
When the subject of Seyfried's singing came up, Jimmy Fallon also asked her if she can play any musical instruments. She revealed that she played piano as a kid and took up the clarinet in high school, but it was during the pandemic that she learned to play the dulcimer ("It's an old instrument. It's like a lap instrument,") she explained.
Fallon surprised her with a dulcimer that, he joked, he always happens to have on hand "just in case anyone plays the dulcimer."
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Amanda Seyfried singing Joni Mitchell's "California" is astonishing
Seyfried laid the instrument across her lap and plucked some strings to make sure it was tuned.
"I would love to play something that's about a state which deserves a lot of love right now," referring to the recent L.A.-area wildfires. After a correct guess from the audience, Seyfried revealed she'd play a song about California — specifically, "California" from Joni Mitchell's 1971 masterpiece, Blue.
"Because she wrote a lot of the songs from the Blue album on the dulcimer, and I learned a lot of her stuff from the Blue album when the world stopped," said Seyfried. "And I'm gonna play it for you."
Seyfried launched into the instrumental intro from the classic track, and when she sang the opening lyrics from "California" she sounded exactly like Mitchell.
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Seyfried's short, sentimental cover brought Fallon to his feet. "That was unbelievable! That was a home run," he told her as she placed the dulcimer in the seat next to her.
"But you know what happens when you become bored? You want to learn new things," she said, before joking that she hopes "we can clear" the rights to use the song.
Aside from Mamma Mia! 3, maybe a Mitchell biopic should be in Seyfried's future?
