She had a relatively successful singing career. She made pop and traditional vocal albums in the 80s. Her biggest hit in the U.S. was 1983's "The Clapping Song". She earned a Grammy nomination in 1984 with "Rock It Out" (for Female Rock performance) and also scored a worldwide hit with "When the Rain Begins to Fall", a duet with Jermaine Jackson. It was not a hit in the U.S., however. Among her albums: Pia (1982) and Let's Dance Tonight (1984), Pia & Phil (1985), I Am What I Am (1986), Reflections/Today (1988) and When the Lights Go Out (1988) and Pia Z (1989). She also had songs on the soundtracks to her films Butterfly (1982), Fake-Out (1982) and Voyage of the Rock Aliens (1984). She went on to perform in Las Vegas, opening for such pop standard veterans as Tony Bennett, Frank Sinatra and others.
She is of Italian origin by her father side (Calabria) and Polish by her mother side.
She made her first records in the 1960s, which included "Bye Bye Boy", for which she was billed as "Little Pia".
Won the now defunct best new star of the year Golden Globe despite the fact that she actually made her acting debut eighteen years earlier.