Listen: At Seventeen on YouTube
About the episode: Released in 1975, At Seventeen is a song about adolescent exclusion, the cruelty of beauty hierarchies, and wounds that outlast the years that caused them. Janis Ian wrapped it in warm folk arrangement and forgiving horns. Fifty-one years later, Ella Ronen covers it and refuses every comfort the original offered.
About Ella Ronen: Ella Ronen is a Zurich-based Israeli musician, poet, and community facilitator. Her fourth album, The Girl with No Skin (2024), was produced by Sam Cohen (Kevin Morby, Sharon Van Etten) and marks her most direct and unguarded work to date. She co-founded the Mino Collective, a network of feminist musicians, and has performed everywhere from the Montreux Jazz Festival to living room shows in Montreal.