ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
Last week, actor Amanda Seyfried appeared on "The Tonight Show" with Jimmy Fallon. She brought something a bit unusual with her - a dulcimer.
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AMANDA SEYFRIED: (Singing) Sitting in a park in Paris, France. Reading the news, and it sure looks bad. They won't give peace a chance.
SHAPIRO: Seyfried played a cover of Joni Mitchell's song "California" that quickly went viral. Now a new generation of Mitchell fans on TikTok are showing off the song's enduring appeal, as NPR's Isabella Gomez Sarmiento reports.
ISABELLA GOMEZ SARMIENTO, BYLINE: Joni Mitchell released "California" in 1971. It's on her seminal album, "Blue."
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JONI MITCHELL: (Singing) Sitting in a Park in Paris, France.
GOMEZ SARMIENTO: And it's still speaking to listeners today, including Amanda Seyfried.
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SEYFRIED: Her voice floats, the dulcimer floats. The way she holds it, the way she plays it, the way she sings with it, it's like they're one instrument.
GOMEZ SARMIENTO: That's Seyfried speaking to ALL THINGS CONSIDERED today. She loves the song "California" because...
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SEYFRIED: It's a celebration of a place that we all want to celebrate very badly right now.
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SEYFRIED: (Singing) California. California, I'm coming home.
GOMEZ SARMIENTO: Seyfried's viral cover is also resonating with people around the world, like 20-year-old Brenna Byrne.
BRENNA BYRNE: I'm from Ireland originally, from Newry, in the north of Ireland, but I'm currently on a study abroad in Paris. So that song really is quite special to me.
GOMEZ SARMIENTO: After Byrne saw Seyfried's clip on "The Tonight Show," she posted her own.
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BYRNE: (Singing) Sitting in a park in Paris, France. Reading the news, and it sure looks bad. They won't give peace a chance. That was just a dream that some of us had.
Reading the news, and it sure looks bad. Like, not much has changed even in 50 years.
GOMEZ SARMIENTO: Byrne says "California" speaks to her because it's a song about being homesick.
BYRNE: A lot of people can relate to it. You know, you can go anywhere in the world, but sometimes all you want is a bit of comfort.
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BYRNE: (Singing) California, I'm coming home. I'm going to see the folks I dig. I'll even kiss a sunset pig.
GOMEZ SARMIENTO: Byrne's video has been seen more than 200,000 times, and she's one of many people having their own covers of "California" go viral.
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LUCIE BERNHEIM: (Singing) But I wouldn't want to stay here. It's too old and cold and settled in its ways here.
GOMEZ SARMIENTO: That's singer/songwriter Lucie Bernheim. She's been playing the dulcimer for two years.
BERNHEIM: I had a video, like, from the day, I started learning it, of "California." And I was like, oh, I'll post it, thinking my friends would see it and be like, oh, my God, this is so silly. And then here we are.
GOMEZ SARMIENTO: That video now has nearly 800,000 views on TikTok.
BERNHEIM: The longevity of a song like "California" is because of its storytelling. What an instrument like the dulcimer does is keeps the storytelling of, like, a song at the forefront.
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MITCHELL: (Singing) Oh, it gets so lonely when you're walking and the streets are full of strangers.
GOMEZ SARMIENTO: Bernheim says Joni Mitchell has been a huge inspiration to her.
BERNHEIM: What does Joni Mitchell's music mean to me? It means everything.
GOMEZ SARMIENTO: But whether you're a longtime fan or you just discovered her, Bernheim says this song has something for everyone.
BERNHEIM: For Joni, it's "California." I think everyone has their California, though, that is where they want to return to, no matter where they've traveled.
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MITCHELL: (Singing) So I bought me a ticket. I got a plane to Spain. Went to a party down a red dirt road.
GOMEZ SARMIENTO: Isabella Gomez Sarmiento, NPR News.
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MITCHELL: (Singing) There were lots of pretty people there reading Rolling Stone, reading Vogue. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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