Pat Benatar
Pat Benatar, born Patricia Mae Andrzejewski on January 10, 1953, in New York City, is an American singer and songwriter known for her powerful rock and pop music. She has sold more than 36 million albums worldwide, won four Grammys, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2022.
Her breakthrough came with the 1979 debut album In the Heat of the Night, which included Heartbreaker and We Live for Love. The 1980 follow-up Crimes of Passion featured Hit Me with Your Best Shot, her signature hit, and helped her win her first Grammy. Precious Time (1981) topped the US chart, and Get Nervous (1982) included Shadows of the Night, earning another Grammy. Love Is a Battlefield (1983) marked a shift to a pop-rock sound and became her biggest hit. Tropico (1984) included We Belong, Seven the Hard Way (1985) gave Invincible and Sex as a Weapon, and Wide Awake in Dreamland (1988) featured All Fired Up.
In the 1990s and 2000s she released True Love (1991), Gravity’s Rainbow (1993), Innamorata (1997), and Go (2003). She also released a holiday song in 2015 and songs for a documentary in 2017.
Benatar grew up in Brooklyn and Long Island. She married Dennis Benatar in 1972; they divorced in 1979. She married guitarist Neil Giraldo in 1982, and they live in Malibu, California, with two daughters, Haley (born 1985) and Hana (born 1994). Her memoir, Between a Heart and a Rock Place, came out in 2010. In 2022 she and Giraldo were inducted into the Rock Hall of Fame. That same year she paused performing Hit Me with Your Best Shot out of respect for victims of mass shootings.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 14:06 (CET).