Who is Patti Scialfa, Bruce Springsteen’s Emmy-winning wife? The Boss’ soulmate and E Street Band-mate is an accomplished solo artist with 3 albums, and calls Michelle Obama a friend
- Bruce Springsteen was still married to actress Julianne Phillips when he hit it off with Patti Scialfa on tour – the couple have been married since 1991 and have 3 kids together
- Springsteen became a billionaire this year, while Scialfa is working on her 4th album; she’s also won an Emmy Award in 2022 for executive producing a docuseries hosted by John Legend
If Bruce Springsteen is “The Boss”, his wife, fellow E Street Band member Patti Scialfa is the “first lady of love”, as he calls her. The couple have been married for 33 years and appear to be as much in love now as they were when they made headlines for the first time with their passionate romance in 1988.
The duo were recently spotted holidaying on a yacht in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, France, with Steven Spielberg, Bono and U2’s the Edge (David Howell Evans) – which made for a fantastic celebration of the star’s shining new billionaire status, as Forbes announced earlier this year.
Scialfa has her own reasons to celebrate too. In 2023, she was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame, while her fourth solo album is set to drop later this year – just 17 years after her third LP, Play It as It Lays, from 2007.
What is Patti Scialfa’s background?
The red-haired beauty was born and raised in Deal, New Jersey, to a Northern Irish mother and a Sicilian father who owned an appliance store and later got into real estate, per People and New Jersey Monthly. She attended Asbury Park High, where her older brother Michael was later a substitute teacher. Scialfa studied at the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music before transferring to and graduating from New York University’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study, per People.
How did she get into music?
It was Scialfa’s maternal grandfather, a songwriter credited for Marie Lloyd’s “A Little of What You Fancy Does You Good”, who ignited her love for music, per New Jersey Monthly. “I was seven or eight year old, and I would play piano with him,” Scialfa told the publication, adding that he would often ask for her opinions on his music.
Her keyboardist brother, Michael, was also an inspiration, per People. However, Scialfa felt the lack of “modern, recognisable role models for a young girl in the 1950s”, and turned to Grace Slick, Janis Joplin and Dusty Springfield’s music, per Rolling Stone.