Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo are set to receive the 2025 ASCAP Harry Chapin Humanitarian Award at the annual Chapin Awards Gala on June 4 at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Frederick P. Rose Hall in New York City.
The 2022 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees and longtime activists, who have been married since 1982, will become the second married couple to receive the award. Songwriting greats Nicholas Ashford & Valerie Simpson received it in 2010.
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The Chapin Awards Gala will include a cocktail reception, dinner, and live music. Additional honorees will be announced in coming weeks.
The event is a major fund-raiser for WhyHunger, a global nonprofit dedicated to ending hunger. Founded in 1975 by Chapin and radio DJ Bill Ayres, WhyHunger funds and supports community solutions to protect the human right to nutritious food.
“We are deeply honored to receive the ASCAP Harry Chapin Humanitarian Award and to stand alongside WhyHunger in their tireless fight to end hunger,” Benatar and Giraldo said in a joint statement. “Music has always been a powerful force for change, and we believe in using our voices not just to entertain, but to inspire action. WhyHunger’s mission aligns with our lifelong commitment to justice and equity, and we are proud to support their work in ensuring that nutritious food is a fundamental right for all.”
“As we celebrate WhyHunger’s 50th anniversary and reflect on our collective journey to end hunger and advance the human right to nutritious food, it’s important to uplift those who have helped lead the way,” Jenique Jones, WhyHunger’s executive director, said in a statement. “Honoring Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo with the ASCAP Harry Chapin Humanitarian Award is a testament to their unwavering commitment to social justice and their powerful influence in igniting change through music.”
Last year’s gala honored singer-songwriter Michael Franti for his music-driven activism, recognizing his work with his and his wife Sara’s non–profit, Do It for the Love.
Benatar won four consecutive Grammy Awards for best rock vocal performance, female from 1981-84 and charted 15 top 40 hits on the Billboard Hot 100. She won three American Music Awards and a People’s Choice Award.
Chapin, a singer, songwriter and social activist, made a big impact in his life, which was tragically cut short when he was killed in a car crash in 1981 at age 38.
Chapin, who wrote and performed such pop/folk classics as “Cat’s in the Cradle” (a No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1974), “Taxi” and “W*O*L*D,” was an early music industry advocate for the world hunger movement. He co-founded WhyHunger a full decade before music industry titans came together as USA for Africa to record “We Are the World” in 1985. Chapin gave tirelessly gave of his time and talents to perform at benefits and events in support of a range of social causes. (On the afternoon he was killed, he was driving to a benefit, where he was slated to perform.)
Chapin received two Grammy nominations in his lifetime – best new artist of 1972 and best pop vocal performance, male two years later for “Cat’s in the Cradle” (which was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2011). In its year-end issue for 1972, Billboard gave Chapin a Trendsetter Award, which was inscribed “For devising a storytelling style of songwriting with a narrative impact rare to popular music.”
The ASCAP Harry Chapin Humanitarian Award was first presented in 1987 to Kenny Rogers, who had been part of “We Are the World” two years earlier. Two subsequent recipients of the award – Harry Belafonte and Kenny Loggins – were also part of that iconic smash, which raised millions for famine relief.
Tickets to the event can be purchased here.
Here’s a full list of winners of the ASCAP Harry Chapin Humanitarian Award. They are listed in reverse chronological order.
2025: Pat Benatar, Neil Giraldo
2024: Michael Franti
2019: John Mellencamp
2018: Jason Mraz
2017: Jon Batiste
2016: Kenny Loggins
2015: Grace Potter (ASCAP Harry Chapin Vanguard Award); Felix Cavaliere (ASCAP Harry Chapin Legacy Award)
2014: The Fab Faux (Beatles tribute band founded by Will Lee, bassist for Late Show With David Letterman)
2013: Yoko Ono
2012: Darlene Love, Peter Noone and Ronnie Spector
