SHE’S the former bank worker who quit her job for a music career and went on to sell over 35 million records.
And 41 years on from the release of her best-loved track, American vocal powerhouse Pat Benatar looks incredible.
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The Love Is a Battlefield singer, 71, appears much younger than her years would suggest.
The Grammy winner and her guitarist husband Neil Giraldo recently sold part of their publishing and recorded music assets to HarbourView Equity Partners.
The songwriting duo spawned many hits in the 80s including Hit Me With Your Best Shot, Promises In The Dark, We Live For Love and Heartbreaker.
They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at the second time of asking in 2022.
Neil told Guitar World: “Patricia has different feelings about it. I think of it this way: Anything that has words like ‘Hall of Fame’ in it is an honour, and you should respect that honour.”
The couple share two grown up children, Hana and Haley Giraldo, who have forged successful careers of their own.
Hana, 29, is a singer and actress with 1.1m Instagram followers, while mum-of-two Haley, 38, previously starred in reality show Filthy Rich: Cattle Drive which followed the offspring of famous people getting their hands dirty.
Born on January 10, 1953, in Brooklyn, New York, hitmaker Pat’s full name is Patricia Andrzejewski.
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Throughout her childhood and high school years, she was active in musical theatre and often sang at local events.
She married her high school sweetheart, Dennis Benatar, in 1972. While the two were together, Pat worked as a bank teller in Virginia.
After attending a Liza Minnelli concert with some of her close friends, Pat decided she wanted to pursue a career in music.
She returned to New York, and began performing at Manhattan comedy club, Catch A Rising Star.
In 1979, she and Dennis divorced. Pat’s debut album, In the Heat of the Night, was released in August of that year. It hit the Billboard 200 chart in October, reaching number 12 the following March.
August of 1980 brought with it her second album, Crimes of Passion, which earned Pat her first Grammy for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance.
Pat and her now-husband, Neil, began working together in 1979.
The two have continued to work together ever since, and have been dubbed the “Romeo and Juliet of rock and roll.”
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