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In 1987, Abdul used her savings to make a singing demo. Other credits include appearances in Coming to America, Action Jackson, Jerry Maguire, The Running Man, American Beauty, Can’t Buy Me Love, and Oliver Stone’s The Doors. Her television appearances include The Tracey Ullman Show, American Music Awards, the Academy Awards, and several commercials, such as The King’s touchdown celebration, as seen in a string of popular Burger King television commercials that aired during the 2005–06 NFL season. In film, Abdul choreographed sequences for the giant keyboard scene involving Tom Hanks’s character in Big.
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In December 2005, Abdul launched a cheerleading/fitness/dance DVD series called Cardio Cheer, which is marketed to children and teenage girls involved with cheerleading and dance. In 1998, she released a second video called Cardio Dance (re-released on DVD in 2000). In 1995, Abdul released a dance workout video entitled Paula Abdul’s Get Up and Dance! (re-released on DVD in 2003), a fast-paced, hip-hop style workout. I’m not quite sure how I got through that.” The success of the choreography in the video led to Abdul’s career of choreographer in music videos. It was also due to the success of the video that Abdul was chosen to be the choreographer for the Jacksons’ Victory tour.Ībdul choreographed videos for several singers throughout the 1980s, including many videos for Janet Jackson during her Control era. “Imagine me telling them what routines to do.
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CareerĪbdul was discovered by The Jacksons, after a few of the band members had watched her while attending a Los Angeles Lakers game. She was signed to do the choreography for the video to their single “Torture”. “My only problem was how to tell the Jacksons how to dance,” Abdul later recalled. Within a year, she became head choreographer. During her freshman year, she was selected from a pool of 700 candidates for the cheerleading squad of the Los Angeles Lakers NBA basketball team-the famed Laker Girls. At 15, she received a scholarship to a dance camp near Palm Springs, and in 1978 appeared in a low-budget Independent musical film, Junior High School.Ībdul studied broadcasting at the California State University, Northridge. She attended Van Nuys High School, where she was a cheerleader and an honor student. Rykiss, grew up in one of the two Jewish families in Minnedosa, Manitoba, and has Ashkenazi Jewish ancestors from Ukraine. Abdul holds dual citizenship in the United States and Canada. She has a sister named Wendy. In 1980, she graduated from Van Nuys High School.Īn avid dancer, Abdul was inspired towards a show business career by Gene Kelly in the classic film Singin’ in the Rain.Ībdul began taking dance lessons at an early age in ballet, jazz, and tap. Abdul’s father, Harry Abdul, was born into the Syrian-Jewish community in Aleppo, Syria, was raised in Brazil, and subsequently emigrated to the United States. Her mother, the concert pianist Lorraine M. Early lifeĪbdul was born in San Fernando, California, to Jewish parents.

She went on to star on CBS’s short-lived television series Live to Dance, which lasted one season in 2011, and was subsequently a judge on the first season of the American version of The X Factor along with her former American Idol co-judge Simon Cowell, the creator and producer of the show. She was also a guest judge on the All-Stars edition of Dancing with the Stars in 2012 and the tenth season of So You Think You Can Dance in 2013, and more recently became a permanent judge for that series along with the Australian version of the show for its 2014 revival. She saw renewed fame and success as an original judge on American Idol in the 2000s, which she left after the eighth season.
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Her six number one singles on the Billboard Hot 100 tie her with Diana Ross for seventh among the female solo performers who have topped the chart. She won a Grammy for “Best Music Video – Short Form” for “Opposites Attract” and twice won the “Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Choreography”.Īfter her initial period of success, Abdul suffered a series of setbacks in her professional and personal life.



Abdul later scored a string of pop music hits in the late 1980s and early 1990s. She began her career as a cheerleader for the Los Angeles Lakers at the age of 18 before rising to prominence in the 1980s as a highly sought-after choreographer at the height of the music video era. Paula Julie Abdul ( / ˈ æ b d uː l/ born June 19, 1962) is an American singer-songwriter, voice actress, dancer, choreographer, actress and television personality.
