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Pat Benatar music biography continued...

January 10, 1953 in Brooklyn, New York. She decided she wanted to be an artist at an early age and studied at Julliard before dropping out and hitting the New York cabaret club circuit in 1975. With a chanteuse style derived from Barbra Streisand and Diana Ross she attracted the attention of Catch A Rising Star club owner Rick Newman, who became her manager. By 1978 she had switched to a more aggressive rock approach, and after being rejected by several labels was signed to Chrysalis. Benatar's debut album went platinum (the first of six) on the strength of the #23 single "Heartbreaker." Her 1980 follow-up, Crimes of Passion, sold over 4 million, yielding two hit singles, "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" (#9, 1980) and "Treat Me Right" (#18, 1981). Precious Time (also multiplatinum), boasted "Promises in the Dark" (#38, 1981) and "Fire and Ice" (#17, 1981). Benatar won four consecutive Grammy Awards for "Best Rock Vocal Performance, Female" from 1980 to 1983.
In 1982, Benatar married her guitarist and musical manager Neil Giraldo, and the two continued to work together to spread Benatar's tough girl, take no prisoners image through much of the 80s. At the end of the decade, her popularity began to wane. With the birth of her second daughter and the absorption of her long-time label, Chrysalis into EMI, Benatar took a break from recording. She came back in 1999, when she and Giraldo were given carte blanche to select songs for the three-disc hits collection Synchronistic Wanderings, distributed by Chrysalis' new parent company. The box set included eight previously unreleased tracks, including an early cover of Roy Orbison's "Crying." Since early 2000, the much awarded artist and her family have been living on the island of Maui in a small, isolated community, where they do organic farming and where she still performs.