Born Patricia (Patti) Mae to Andy and Mildred Andrzejewski on January 10, 1953 in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, and raised in Lindenhurst, New York, on Long Island, this woman of Polish and Irish descent would grow up to be one of the most recognised Rock Divas of all time.

Following in the footsteps of her mother who had been in the chorus at the New York City Opera, Andrzejewski started singing in the fourth grade, studied voice for several years and later would be accepted to The Juilliard School. Andrzejewski shocked family and friends however by marrying high-school sweetheart Dennis Benatar after graduating from Lindenhurst Senior High School (1967 - 1971) where she had studied musical-theater and played such parts as Queen Guinevere in the school production of Camelot. Patti said, "I really wanted to sing rock and roll but I had no outlet."

Dennis, an army draftee, was stationed in Richmond, Virginia, where Patti attended college to become a school teacher and worked as a bank teller. It was Liza Minnelli's concert at the Richmond Coliseum November 15, 1973, that inspired Patti to quit her job the next day and pursue a singing career.

Patti took a job as a singing waitress at a flapperesque nightclub named The Roaring Twenties and began singing in lounge band Coxon's Army, a regular at Sam Miller's basement club. The band garnered enough attention to be the subject of a never aired PBS special, and the band's bassist Roger Capps also would go on to be the original bass player for the Pat Benatar band.

Patti's big break came in 1975 at an amateur night at the renowned comedy club Catch a Rising Star in New York. Patti's rousing rendition of Judy Garland's Rock-A-Bye Your Baby With a Dixie Melody earned her a call back by club owner Rick Newman, who would become her manager:

"I came in from Virginia one night. I had straight red hair and I wore a dress. I sang a Judy Garland song and I don’t know what happened, I never sang in New York before in my life, even though I grew up there, everybody just went crazy. I didn’t do anything spectacular. I don’t know what happened, it was just one of those magical things. [Rick Newman] came right in and said, ‘Let’s talk about you playing here some more.’" Mr. Newman said, "It was 2:45 in the morning. We had 30 performers and she was about #27. I was on the other side of the room drinking with some friends--then I suddenly heard this voice!"

The couple moved back to New York that year following Dennis' discharge from the army, and Patti went on to be a regular member of Rising Star for close to three years, until signing a record contract.

Rising Star wasn't the only break Patti got in 1975. Patti landed the part of Zephyr in Harry Chapin's futuristic rock musical "The Zinger". The production, which debuted on March 19, 1976, at the Performing Arts Foundation's (PAF) Playhouse in Huntington Station, Long Island, ran for a month and also featured Beverly D'Angelo and Christine Lahti.

Halloween 1977 proved a pivotal night for Patti's early, spandexed stage persona. Rather than change out of the vampire costume she had worn to a Greenwich Village cafe party that evening, she went on-stage wearing black eyeliner, black tights, and short black top.

All of a sudden, despite performing her usual array of songs, Rising Star's audience was hit with this strong visual image that matched her exceptional singing and powerful vocal range. This time she received a standing ovation: "The crowd was always polite, but this time they went out of their minds. It was the same songs, sung the same way, and I thought, 'Oh my god...it's these clothes and this makeup!'"

In between appearances at Rising Star and recording commercial jingles for Pepsi Cola and a number of regional concerns, Pat Benatar headlined New York City’s famous Tramps nightclub March 29 - April 1, 1978, where their knockout performance devoted to original rock material and ballads, plus a few rearranged favorites, including "Bird of Paradise" and "My My My" by Taro Meyers, Roy Orbison's "Crying," and a reggae arrangement of Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven," impressed representatives from several record companies. They were signed to Chrysalis Records by founder Terry Ellis the following week.

Pat Benatar debuted the week of August 27, 1979 with the release of I Need A Lover from the album In The Heat Of The Night. Patti said, "My album was the last of a bunch by female singers to come out so I was told not to expect much, even though Mike Chapman was producing."

Pat Benatar won an unprecedented four consecutive Grammy Awards for "Best Rock Vocal Performance, Female" from 1980 to 1983 for Crimes of Passion, "Fire And Ice," "Shadows Of The Night," and "Love Is A Battlefield," and was nominated four more times: "Invincible" in 1985, "Sex As A Weapon" in 1986, "All Fired Up" in 1988 and in 1989 for "Let's Stay Together."

Benatar also earned Grammy Award nominations in 1985 for Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female with "We Belong" and in 1986 for Best Rock Vocal Performance, Duo or Group as a member of Artists United Against Apartheid for their single "Sun City." Benatar is also the winner of three American Music Awards: Favorite Female Pop/Rock Vocalist of 1981 and 1983, and Favorite Female Pop/Rock Video Artist of 1985.

Benatar was twice named Rolling Stone magazine's Favorite Female Vocalist, and Billboard magazine ranks her as the most successful female rock vocalist of all time based on overall record sales and the number of hit songs and their charted positions. Benatar was inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame in 2007.

The Benatars divorced in 1979. Patti and band leader/lead guitarist Neil Giraldo married February 20, 1982. The Giraldos have two daughters: Haley Egeana born February 16, 1985, and Hana Juliana born March 12, 1994.