Pat Benatar

Pat Benatar married her high-school sweetheart, Dennis Benatar, in 1972, and the couple divorced in 1979. She married guitarist Neil Giraldo on February 20, 1982, and they have two daughters, Haley and Hana.

Benatar and Giraldo have maintained both a personal and professional partnership. Giraldo played lead guitar on her albums and co-wrote songs including "We Live for Love" and "Fire and Ice."

Born Patricia Mae Andrzejewski, Benatar was raised in Lindenhurst, Long Island. Her mother, Mildred, was a beautician and trained opera singer, while her father, Andrew Andrzejewski, worked in sheet metal. Benatar sang in her high-school musical theater department and was accepted to the Juilliard School, but attended Stony Brook University instead to study health education.

After leaving college and moving to Virginia with Dennis, Benatar worked as a bank teller. A Liza Minnelli concert inspired her to pursue singing, leading to work as a singing waitress at the Roaring Twenties nightclub. She joined the Richmond cabaret band Coxon's Army, then returned to New York and became a regular performer at Catch a Rising Star.

At Catch a Rising Star, Benatar's performance of Judy Garland's "Rock-a-Bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody" earned her a callback from club owner Rick Newman, who became her manager. She also played Zephyr in Harry Chapin's futuristic rock musical The Zinger and recorded commercial jingles before record-company representatives saw her headline Tramps in 1978.

Benatar's debut album, In the Heat of the Night, was released in 1979 and included "Heartbreaker" and "We Live for Love." Giraldo wrote "We Live for Love," helping establish the musical partnership that shaped her subsequent work.

Her second album, Crimes of Passion (1980), became her breakthrough release. It featured "Hit Me with Your Best Shot," "Treat Me Right," and "You Better Run," and earned her first Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance. The album was certified four-times platinum in the United States.

She followed it with the number-one album Precious Time (1981), which included the Grammy-winning song "Fire and Ice," and Get Nervous (1982), whose single "Shadows of the Night" won another Grammy. "You Better Run" was the second music video shown on MTV.

Benatar's shift toward atmospheric pop produced some of her biggest successes. "Love Is a Battlefield" became her biggest international hit and won her fourth consecutive Grammy, while "We Belong" and "Invincible" also became major singles. The video for "Love Is a Battlefield" incorporated spoken dialogue and choreography, and "Invincible" served as the theme song for The Legend of Billie Jean.

Benatar released the albums True Love (1991), Gravity's Rainbow (1993), Innamorata (1997), and Go (2003). She later recorded the holiday song "One December Night," the Women's March song "Shine," and "Dancing Through the Wreckage," which appeared on the soundtrack of the documentary Served Like a Girl and received a Critics' Choice Documentary Awards nomination.

Her 2010 memoir, Between a Heart and a Rock Place, discusses her career, conflicts with Chrysalis Records, personal life, and feminism. The book became a New York Times bestseller.

Benatar has also acted in the film Union City and appeared in television programs including Family Law, That '80s Show, Charmed, and Dharma & Greg. She and Giraldo performed together for NPR Music's Tiny Desk Concerts series in 2014.

Benatar and Giraldo were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as members of the class of 2022. In 2022, she also decided not to perform "Hit Me with Your Best Shot" during her tour in response to recent mass shootings.