Pat Benatar

Background

Patricia Mae Giraldo, known worldwide as Pat Benatar, is an American rock singer and songwriter born in Brooklyn, New York City, U.S. She was raised in Lindenhurst, New York. Her father, Andrew Andrzejewski, was a sheet metal worker, while her mother, Mildred Knapp, worked as a beautician. Benatar showed an interest in music from a very young age and gave her first stage performance at eight at Daniel Street Elementary School. During high school, she participated in theater and Christmas lighting ceremonies, where she sang solos. After high school, she enrolled at Stony Brook University in 1971. However, she dropped out the following year to marry her high school sweetheart, Dennis Benatar. After marriage, the couple moved to Fort Lee, Virginia.

In 1975, Benatar and her husband returned to New York City, where she pursued a career in music. In 1978, she was discovered by the representatives of a record company at a nightclub where she used to perform. Benatar and her husband divorced the next year, in 1979. In the same year, she released her first album, “In the Heat of the Night,” which received wide acclaim. Between 1981 and 2003, she released 10 albums: “Crimes of Passion” (1980), “Precious Time” (1981), “Get Nervous” (1982), “Tropico” (1984), “Seven the Hard Way” (1985), “Wide Awake in Dreamland” (1988), “True Love” (1991), “Gravity’s Rainbow” (1993), “Innamorata” (1997), and “Go” (2003).

Her biggest hit to date, ‘Love is a Battlefield,’ has reached number one on numerous music and won a Grammy award. In 1982, she married songwriter, musician, and guitarist, Giraldo. The couple has two daughters, Haley and Hana. Benatar is very much active in the music scene and, with her guitarist husband, plays to this day.